
Class. 
Book_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



" Upon its record and its candidates, the RepuUican party asks the country's approval, 
and stands ready to avow its purposes for the future. It proposes to rebuild our com- 
mercial marine, driven from the sea by Confederate cruisers, aided and abetted by foreign 
hostility. It p)'>'oi'>oses to foster lahor, industry and enterprise. It proposes to stand for 
education, humanity and progress. It proposes to administer the Government honestly, lo 
preserve amity with all the world, observing our own obligations icith others, and seeing that 
others observe theirs with us ; to protect every citizen, of 'whatever birth or color, in his rights 
and equality before the law, including his right to vote and to be counted ; to uphold the 
public credit and the sanctity of engagements : and by doing tliese things the RepubUcnn 
party proposes to assure industry, humanity and civilization in America the amplest 
welcome and the safest Iwme." — Senator Roscoe Conkling. 



GREAT REPUBLICAN SPEECHES 



OF THE 



CAMPAIGN OF 1880 



" But I know tliat if one speak, even in a wliisi^er, in. the cause of liis country, and for 
love of it, the people of tlic United States will catch up the sound • and wherever patriot- 
ism has not died out, and wherever liberty is not suppressed, and wherever suffrage is 
honored and respected, they will carry on that voice, though lost in the final decision 
which has triumphed, or has faded away." — Hon. Williaji M. Evarts. 



c 



r»v 



STATEN ISLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

Staj'letox, New-Yoek. 

1881. 



i 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by the 

STATEN ISL,AND PUBLISHING COMPANY 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



3- 

1 

I 

1/1 
3 



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PREFACE 



This volume contains some of tlie best speeches delivered by- 
eminent Republicans in the Cities of New- York and Brooklyn, 
during the CamiDaign of 1880. It will be seen by a glance at the 
contents that this volume contains concise, noble, generous, 
instructive, soul-stirring words, which will live when those who have 
uttered them have jpassed away. 

Possibly the reading of these si3eeclies may make us more 
patriotic, fill us with greater love of country, of home, of all that 
goes to make uj) home, of love for the best and grandest form of 
government that has ever existed. 

Let us all hope that the career of the Great Republic will be one 
of uninterrux3ted prosperity and peaceful jDrogress. We believe 
that the Rex^ublic of the United States of America is the strongest 
form of government, so far as respects cohesion and self- 
maintenance, that the world has seen. We believe in a prosperous 
and honorable future ; we want concord at home and peace and 
respect abroad ; the good citizen cherishes an equal confidence in 
regard to the destiny reserved for our beloved country. We are 
at the dawn of a day of prosi3erity^ such as has never been 
measured out to this land. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 
The great Speecli of Senator Roscoe Conkling, in the Academy of Music, Xew- 

York City, Friday night, September 17, 1880, 5 

The Address of Hon. William M. Evarts, in the Academy of INIusic, New- York 

City, Wednesday evening, September 29, 1880, 20 

The Address of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, in the Cooper Union, Xew- York City, 

Wednesday evening, October 13, 1880, 31 

The Speech of the Hon. Emery A. Storrs, of Chicago, in the Cooper Union, New- 
York City, Wednesday night, October 20, 1880, 38 

Thfe Address of the Hon. William M. Evarts, in the BrookhTi Academy of Music, 

Wednesday evening, October 20, 1880, 43 

The great Speech of Colonel Robert Gr. Ingersoll, in the Cooper Union, New- York 

City, Saturday evening, October 23, 1880, 51 

The Speech of Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, in front of the Sub-Treasury in Wall 

Street New- York City, Thursday afternoon, October 28, 1880, 63 

A Speech by President Rutherford B. Hayes, delivered at Cleveland, Ohio, 

Thursday evening, November 4, 1880, 67 



GREAT CAMPA 




lUl 



The great Speech of Senator Roscoe Coxkling, in the Academy of 3Iusic, 
New- York City, Friday nighty September 17, 1880, 



Whoever is given greeting and audience in such 
a presence ought indeed to have something vrorthy 
—something fit and wise to say. Inadequate in all, 
save only grateful and respectful appreciation, must 
be my return. We are citizens of a Republic, We 
govern ourselves. Ilere no pomp of eager array in 
chambers of royalty awaits the birth of boy or girl 
to wield a hereditary sceptre whenever death or 
revolution pours ou the oil of coronation. We 
know no sceptre save a majority's constitutional 
will. To wield that sceptre in equal share is the 
duty and the right, nay, the birthright, of every 
citizen. The supreme, tlie final, the only peaceful 
arbiter here is the ballot-box ; and in that urn 
should be gathered, and from it should be sacredly 
recorded, the conscience, the judgment, the intelli- 
gence of all. The right of free self-go vorument has 
been in all ages the bright dream of oppressed 
humanity — tlie sighed-for privilege to which thrones, 
dynasties and power have so long blocked the way. 
France seeks it by forced marches and daring 
strides. Mr. Forster, Secretary for Ireland, tells 
the peerage of England it must take heed lest it fall, 
and Westminster and England ring with dread 
echoes of applause. But in the fullness of freedom 
the Republic of America is alone in the earth; alone 
in its grandeur ; alone in its blessings ; alone in its 
promises and possibilities, and, tlierefore, alone in 
the devotion due from its citizens. The time has 
come when law, duty and interest require the 
Nation to determine for at least four years its policy 
in. many things. 

Two parties exist ; parties should always exist 
in a Government of majorities, and to support and 
strengthen the party which most nearly holds his 
views is among the most laudable, meritorious acts 
of an American citizen, and this whether he be in 
official or in private station. Two parties contend for 
the management of national affairs. One or the 
other of th'.'se two contestants is sure to manage the 
Kation's concerns for some time to come. The 
question is, which of the two is it safer and wiser 
to ti'ust. It is not a question of candidates. A 
candidate, if he be an lionest^ genuine man, will not 
eeek and accept a party nomination to the Presi- 
dency, Vice-Presidency or Congress, and after he is 



elected become a law unto himself. Few things 
are more despicable than first to secure elevation at 
the hands of a party, and then, in the hope of win- 
ning pretentious nonpartisan applause, to affect 
superior sanctity, and meanly to imjily that those 
whose support and confidence were eagerly and 
deferentially sought are wanting in purity, patriot- 
ism, or some other title to respect. 

The higher obligations among men are not set 
down in writing and signed and sealed— they reside 
in honor and good faith. The fidelity of a nominee 
belongs to this exalted class, and, therefore, a can- 
didate of a party is but the exponent of a party. 
The object of political discussion and action is to 
settle principles, policies and issues. It is a paltry 
incident of an election affecting fifty million people, 
that it decides for an occasion the aspirations of in- 
dividual men. The Democratic party is the Demo- 
cratic candidate, and I am against the ticket and all 
its works. 

The general issue confronting us is in itself and in 
its bearings sectional. I would, and you would, it 
were not so, but it is so. If in one portion of the 
country one party outnumbers the other even by 
overwhelming odds, the fact need not be blamable, 
nor proof of sectional aggression. But if in any 
section a party gains and keeps control, not by 
numbers, not by honesty and law, and then, stifling 
free discussion and action, attempts to grasp the 
government of the whole country, the proceeding is 
sectional, guilty, and monstrous. In twelve States of 
the Union the approachiug election is to be no 
more than a farce, unless, as has sometimes hap- 
pened, it be turned into a tragedy. There is to be 
no free debate, no equal rights, no true expression 
in these States ; and in several States the clear 
majority is to have no deciding power— not even a 
chance in a raffle, such as that in which lots were 
cast and the booty divided the other day between 
Tammany Ilall and the upper air and solar walk 
reform Democracy, Senator Hampton largely pro- 
mises 40,000 Democratic majority in South Carolina, 
where the actual majority is 40,000 the other way. 
In several Southern States there is a large, well- 
known, often ascertained Republican majority, but 
all Southern States alike, without exception or 



SPEECH OF ROSCOE COXIvLIXG. 



doubt, are relied upon to count on the Democratic 
siJe, and to score 138 Electoral votes — lacking but 
47 of a majority of all. 

The causes of such a condiilon and the conse- 
quences, if it succeeds, are matters which no sane, 
intelligent man can put out of view, and yet he who 
discusses them must be told, in the coarse parlance 
of the day, that he waves " the bloody shirt." It is 
a relief to remember that this phrase and the thing 
it means is no invention of our politics. It dates 
back to Scotland three centuries ago. After a 
massacre in Glenfruin, not so savage as has stained 
our annals, 220 widows rode on white palfreys to 
Stirling Towers, bearing each on a spear her hus- 
band's bloody shirt. The appeal waked Scotland's 
slumbering sword, and outlawry and the block 
made the name of Glenfruin terrible to victorious 
Clan Alpine even to the third and fourth genera- 
tion. I am not going to recite horrors, nor to allude 
to them, nor to the chapter of cruelty they fill ; nor 
to retry the issues of the war. My purpose is quite 
different. It is to show, if I can, what is actually at 
stake now, who and what the contending forces are, 
how much the result may mean, and which way 
prudence and wisdom point. 

The Testimony of Gen. Grant. 

You have listened to a letter from one to whom at 
least as much as to any other man the Nation owes 
its preservation, prosperity and primacy. This 
letter, instinct with common sense, hits the nail on 
the head. Its writer generally does hit nails, re- 
bellions and pretenders on the head. He says : 

" This meeting sliould awaken the people to the 
importance of keeping control of the Government 
in the hands of the Republican party until we can 
have two national parties, every member of which 
can cast his ballot as judgment dictates, without 
fear of molestation or ostracism, and have it honestly 
counted ; parties not differing in opinion as to 
whether we are a nation, but as to the policy to 
secure the greatest good to the greatest number of 
its citizens. Sincerely believing that the Demo- 
cratic party, as now constituted and controlled, is 
not a fit party to trust with the control of the 
general Government, I believe it to the best interest 
of all sections, South as well as North, that the 
Republican party should succeed in November. 

Yours very truly, U. S. Grant." 

Lord Chesterfield said that a letter shows the man 
it is written to, as well as the man it is written by. 
This letter bears Lord Chesterfield out. It is 
written to Gen. Arthur, and it reveals the confi- 
dence and esteem in which the writer holds him. 
Informed by many years of intimate acquaintance. 
Gen. Grant knew and felt, as we know and feel, that 
he was writing not only to a friend, but to one of 
the most genuine, patriotic and honorable of men. 

How the Democratic Party is 
Constituted and Controlled. 

The letter furnishes a text for many sermons. 
"The Democratic party as now constituted and 
controlled." How is it constituted, how controlled ? 



There is a vast number of upright, patriotic men in 
it— a vast number of men wlio gave all and did all 
they should have given and done to uphold their 
Government and their flag in the supreme and dire 
hour of trial. A ^ast number who imperiled their 
lives, as other Democrats laid down their lives for 
their country. Many Northern Democrats who cast 
all their weight and sympathy on the Nation's side, 
after the war was over returned to their former 
party association ; many others never did so return. 
Were such Democrats to guide and influence a 
Democratic Congress and a Democratic Administra- 
tion their party would not be "constituted and 
controlled" as it is. Because such men and their 
views and interests will not and cannot control, in 
the event of Democratic success, much grave peril 
arises. 

As the Democratic party is constituted, not the 
men of the North, not the men who were for the 
Union and the Constitution, but the men of the 
South, who were against the Union and the Con- 
stitution, men whose policy and purposes are still 
hurtful to the country, are bound and predestined to 
control a Democratic Administration and a Demo- 
cratic Congress. In the Senate and in the House 
the South has an overwhelming majority of the 
Democratic members, and most of them are men 
who led in the rebellion. Every party measure in 
Congress is settled in party caucus by a party 
majority ; thus the Southern members hold absolute 
sway. In possession of the law-making power, of 
the purse, and of the power to confirm or reject 
treaties and appointments, the South is also to 
furnish all the votes to elect the Democratic candi- 
dates, save only the 47 votes which must be raflled, 
or counted, or certified, or produced from the 
Northern States, particularly not excepting Oregon. 
Should the election be close, there is no knowing but 
the two Democratic houses may find ground oij 
which to throw out a part or all of any State's 
Electors. With much unemploj'ed leisure on their 
hands, with the danger which the Electoral Com- 
mission of 1877 alone overpassed, for that time, 
staring the country in the face, these Domocratic 
houses have adopted no measure to insure order 
and right in ascertaining the result of the Presiden- 
tial election. Should controversy arise, and the 
election be thrown into the House, there, the vote 
being taken by States, the South would cast nearly 
all the Democratic votes, and in the Senate the 
vote for Vice-President would come from the same 
source. In every event of Democratic success, the 
Southern end of the Democratic party must be to 
the Northern end as the locomotive is to the ten- 
der, as the horse is to the cart. This is as plain as 
any truth in gravitation or arithmetic. 

All this commanding power is exerted by the re- 
presentatives of a small fraction of the country's 
population, and of a still smaller fraction of the 
country's property. 

S"welling the Southern Vote. 

Perhaps this point will seem to you to challenge 
some attention. For the population of Southern 
States we must go back to the census of 1870. That 
count of the people was made by enumerators not 



SrEECH OF EOSCOE CO^'KLING. 



selected, by Sonthern Senator? and members of the 
House as "non-partisans" and professional ru- 
formers. It was made by tlie rcgnliu JIarslials and 
their deputies, and tlic compensation was so ad- 
justed as to induce tbnrongla visitation, and, at tlie 
same time, to guard against exaggeration of num- 
bers. No imputation of fraud was ever cast upon 
the worlc. Such a thing as a plot to fabricate a 
monstrous increase of the population in one section, 
in order to baffle the course of nature and the logic 
of events in another — a plot to change the balance 
of power and population in order to aggrandize one 
section by establishing a false basis of representa- 
tion and apportionment, thus robbing other sections 
of their share in governing the country, in levying 
taxes, and appropriating money — bad not at that 
time occurred to the conservative foes of radicalism. 
That partictilar spoke in the wheel of deviltry had 
not turned up to the shifty patriot of that day. 
Now, such schemes seem to wax apace. We read 
of producing false heirs to thrones and estates, but 
to multiply false heirs without any one to personate 
them on a scale so grand as seems now in process, 
would stupefy the ingenuity of a French novelist, 
or anybody else except a thorough-going, non-parti- 
san conservative disciple of the Democratic persua- 
sion, wanting nothing for himself, but ready to do 
and suifer for a white man's government with " re- 
form "and "a change." 

The suggestion now is that the census takers of 
18T0 under-counted their neighbors. Paid by the 
head and by the mile, not by the day, it is now 
alleged they robbed themselves; they neither trav- 
elled nor counted, nor charged for doing it. They 
were " carpet-baggers," too, many of them, in the 
South ; their States were Republican, they had their 
ambitions and motives for increased political num- 
bers and power, there was not the remotest danger 
of any direct tax ; and yet, with nothing to gain and 
everything to lose, they wronged and swindled 
themselves for the sake of being dishonest. This 
all may be. It is the only way of accounting for the 
awkward wonders of the census now progressing. 
It cannot be called ingenious, because it is plainly 
the only possible explanation, and it limps badly. 
Ecumenical councils may sit on these recent fabu- 
lous census revelations, but men will still wonder 
how 43 per cent, was added to the population of a 
State in ten years, during which she received ex- 
actly 137 foreign immigrants— a fact established 
without the aid of any census. Such an increase of 
population anywhere would crop out in unnumbered 
directions. Production, consumption, buildings, 
tilled acreage, railway traffic, postal returns, immi- 
gration, would tell the story of such growth. 
Whether these tell-tale tests, M'hich cannot be 
smothered, sustain or demolish the proposed count 
in the Southern States will incidently appear fur- 
ther on, if your patience shall endure. 

I was speaking of the population of the eleven 
States, now twelve by the division of Virginia, 
which seceded from the Union, and now constitute 
the chief power of the Democratic party. In ISTO 
it was: white, 7,r6T,213; black, 4,170,222; total, 
11,24(),435. The total was 29 per cent., or three- 
tenths of the population of the United States. The 
whites were one-sixth of the whole population of 



the country; the blacks one-ninth. The Democratic 
majority in all these twelve States represents about 
six million people, or fifteen per cent, of our whole 
people. If to this number be added all the people 
of these States, of whatever color, then they repre- 
sent not more than seven percent, of the industrial, 
commercial, tax-paying, property interests of the 
country ; the other States of the Union representing 
ninety-three per cent. 

Rebels Controlling the Nation. 

Let us see how much National control is now in 
the hands of the South, scant as it is in numbers 
and interest. Upward of thirty members sit in 
the House of Representatives and in the Electoral 
Colleges, by reason of counting the whole colored 
population as citizens, with full political rights, 
equal in all things with the whites. This is a 
double wrong and double robbery, to just the ex- 
tent to which thefrecdmen are hindered or defraud- 
ed of their vote and their voice. To what extent 
this is true, the election returns too clearly show. 
This representation, based on stifled rights, is a 
plain violation of the Constitution and of common 
honesty ; but there it is, and there it votes and 
speaks in the Nation's councils. 

The sixteen lately Slave Slates (including Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, which did 
not secede) have thirty-two Senators. Thirty-nine 
is a majority of the Senate ; so that the South needs 
only seven Senators from the other States to make a 
majority of all. She will never fail to get them if 
seven Northern Democrats are there. There are 
twelve there now. 

In the House of Representives there are 293 mem- 
bers. A majority is 147. The South has luO mem- 
bers, lacking only 41 of a majority of all. 

The Electoral College consists of 3ii0 ; a majority 
is 1S5. The South has 138, lacking only 47 of a ma- 
jority. Consider the sway these numbers have. In the 
Senate there are twenty-eight committees, and com- 
mittees not only prepare but virtually control legis- 
lation in both houses, and this must be so more and 
more as the houses and the business grow larger. 
Of these twenty-eight committees the South has the 
Chairmanship of seventeen, and the control of all. 
The Southern chairmanships are of important com- 
mittees. Delaware, with 140,000 people, about as 
many as the City of Cleveland, Ohio, or a single rural 
county in New- York, has the Chairmanships of the 
Committees of Privileges and Elections and of Fi- 
nance—both very important committees. The great 
Stateof New- York, with five million people, and her 
enormous interests and tax-paying, has for her Dem- 
ocratic Senator the Chairmanship of the Committee 
on Patents. West Virginia has the Chairmanship 
of the Committee on Appropriations, which holds 
the purse strings of the country. The great State 
of Pennsylvania has the Chairmanship of Revision 
of Laws, a committee whose business was finished 
years ago. Virginia has the Chairmaufhip of the 
Committee ou Pensions, Georgia of Commerce, 
Texas of Post Offices and Post Roads, Missouri of 
Claims, North Carolina of Railroads, and so on. 

I have said the South has control of all the work- 
ing committees. This is true in this way : On every 
committee there is a majority of Democrats, and oi 



SPEECH OF KOSCOE CONKLING. 



these a majority in all cases consists of Soutliern 
Senators. 

TIio same conditions prevail in tlie House. Thiere 
arc /ortj'-two committees. Tlie Cliairraen of twenty- 
two are from the South. All the committees are so 
coasti luted that the majority is Democratic, and of 
the majority more than half is Southern. 

During the two years while this absolute power 
in boib Houses has been so lodged, the existence of 
the veto power, and the approach of the Presidential 
canvass have suggested urgent reasons for "going 
slow." Many expected bills have not been intro- 
duced, many that have been introduced have not 
been "pressed," some that have been " pressed" 
have run against such obstinate opposition as to 
secure present postponement or some modification. 
But whiucver the hour strikes that the veto power 
is in Democratic hands— put there by Southern 
votes— whatever the " solid " caucus decrees will be 
written. 

The South and the Property In- 
terests of the Country. 

That caucus will be controlled by those who re- 
present less than one-seventh of the.people of the 
Union. I have said also that they represent not 
more than one-fourteenth of the producing, commer- 
cial, industrial, tax-paying and property interests 
of the country. Let me prove this by the official 
figures of the Bureau of Statistics : 

Revenue. 

1S79— Customs duties, $137,250,048. Collected at 
Southern ports, $2,l-lj,50.5. 

This is \}i per cent., or one-sixtieth part. 

1870— Internal revenue, $110,84S,'2S1. Paid by 
twelve Southern States, $-20,332,3(j4. 

This is 17 per cent., or one-sixth part. 

Since the war, Ohio alone has paid more internal 
revenue than all the late Confederate States united. 
So has Illinois. New-York alone has paid nearly 
twice as much. If customs duties were added, the 
comparison would be more striking still. 

Commerce. 

Our domestic commerce exceeds our foreign com- 
merce twenty-fold. Railways move 90 per cent, of 
it. In 1879, 4a';, 013 freight cars carried this traffic. 
Of these cars, the late Confederate States employed 
31,248. This is 'i 1-25 per cent., or one-fourteenth 
part. 

In 1879 the tonnage of vessels engaged in internal 
traffic was 2,(jrs,0(;7 tons. The late Confederate 
States employed 242,048 tons. This is 9 per cent., 
or one-eleventh part. 

In 1879 (to June 30, 1880) our exports were 
$8:;5,'i3",5!)5. The South exported $1SS,(J29,717. This 
is 22;^ per cent., or two-ninths part. Of this, 84 per 
cent, was cotton, and the New-York Cotton Ex- 
change reports that very little of it was moved by 
Southern capitid. All that came North was handled 
by Northern capital. That exported directly was 
moved mostly by Northern tmd foreign capital. 

lu 18;9 (to June 30, 1S80) our imports were 
$GCT,95o,:iC2. Tlie South imported $15,934,391. This 
is 2>i per cent., or onc-foriy-third part. 



Exports and imports together were $1,503.58(;,897. 
The share of the South was $i04,564,108. This is 
13 3-5 per cent., or one-seventh. 

In 1879 (Oct. 2) bank loans were $878,503,097. 
Loans of Southern banks, $4G,3G0,OU7. This is 5 per 
cent., or one-nineteenth. 

In 18;9 (Oct. 2) State and national bank circulation 
was $314,103,2:3. Southern banks, $23,478,420. This 
is 73^ per cent., or one-thirteenth. 

In 1878 (six months, ending Jlay 31, latest returns) 
deposits in savings banks were $873,135,817. In 
Southern banks, $2,527,423. This is four-tenths ol 
1 per cent., or one two hundred and filtieth part. 

In 1S79, cost of rail-roads in the United States 
was $4,100,331,921. Cost of Southern rail-roads, 
$550,274,970. This is 13>3 per cent., or one-seventh. 

The latest returns show weight of mails carried 
on railways was 551,370,158 pounds. On Southern 
roads, 94,394,853 pounds. This is 17)^ per cent., or 
one-sixth part. 

In 1870 our manufactures were $4,232,325,442. 
Southern portion was $277,720,037. This is 6^ per 
cent., or one-sixteenth part. 

In 1870, production of our mines was $152,598,994; 
of Southern mines, $4,996,0:2. This is 3^^ per cent., 
or one-thirty-flrst part. 

From June -"0, 1870, to June SO, 1880, the number 
of immigrants who came to the United States was 
2,812,177. Of these, 2,G(:2 came to Southern Atlantic 
ports, and 47,239 to ports of the Gulf of Mexico, 
making for the whole South, 49,901. This is 1 77-100 
per cent., or one-sixtieth. 

The latest report of the Commissioner of Educa- 
tion states the total income for the public schools 
of the country at $Rli,97;:,101. The South paid for 
public schools $^,530,797. This is 9 1-12 per cent., 
or one-tenih part. This item is presented here be- 
cause it belongs to the industrial interest. 

Looking into this mirror of the country's business 
we see impartially and exactly reflected the respec- 
tive proportions and features of the two sections. 
By analysis and average we see that production, in- 
dustry, commerce, capital and revenue are found 
one-fourteenth in one section of the country and 
thirteen-fourteenths in the other sections. 

Industry and Capital Disfran- 
chised. 

These are hard, stubborn facts. They are not re- 
cited with pleasure— far from it. They are recited 
with deep regret, yet their recital will be denounced 
as evincing a spirit of exultation, of hostile, in- 
vidious criticism. It will be said the South was 
taunted with lier poverty. All this will be untruly, 
unjustly said. As an American, profoundly do I de- 
plore the languor, the misfortunes and the wasted 
opportunities of any and every portion of our land. 

The ruinous course of affairs in the South 
comes home to every citizen of this great State, 
whose interests and whose grandeur are so dear to 
me. The welfare and interest of the South and of 
the West, and of every portion of the country, is 
the interest of Ncw-Vork. Whose capital helped to 
build Western and Southern railway s ? Who holds 
tliebondsand obligations of Southern communities? 
When petitions arc presented to Congress praying 



SPEECH OF EOSOOE CONKLING. 



some action to stay repudiation in Louisiana and 
other Southern States, wlio sign those memorials as 
hoi '.crs of the dishonored bonds ? Who sells on 
credit to the South? Who buys her cotton and 
tobacco? Who would gain by her increase of pro- 
duction aud wealth? Who loses by her Inertness 
and dii^tractious? Do men wish to injure or de- 
stroy their own investments? Whoever will an- 
swer these questious will know that New-York and 
her people, from love of self and love of gain, say- 
ing nothing of otlier reasons, earnestly long that 
the South may be peaceful and prosperous, and able 
to pay her share of taxes and bear her share of the 
public burdens. From the wheat-fields of Minne- 
sota to the pastures of Texas there is not an acre 
whose fertility does not benefit Kew-York, nor 
could she profit by the misfortunes or poverty of a 
hamlet in all our borders. 

It is not needed to tlie argument at this moment 
even to relate the causes of the mildew and sterility 
of the South, sunny, fertile and blessed by nature, 
as she is. Were I speaking to Southern men, with 
a hope that they would listen, it would be well in- 
deed to beg them to reflect upon these causes. 
When the war was over, had there been hearty, 
manly acceptance of tlic most generous, magnani- 
mous terms the world ever saw accorded by victors 
in any case — not in any like case, because there is 
none like it in history ; had politics and thirst 
for power played less part, wasted less time and 
done less wrong ; had industry, enterprise, thrift 
and humanity ruled the hour ; had there been more 
mending and building, and planting and sowing; 
had there been less ostracism and hate to repel 
Nortliern capital and keep back and drive back 
Northern men ; had a fair day's wages been paid for 
a fair day's work ; had there been no prosecution or 
exodus of labor ; had repudiation been loathed and 
shunned and not embraced— how high in the firma- 
ment of the Union would glitter the constellation 
of the South ? 

But, as already said, 1 deal at this point with con- 
sequences and results as tliey are, not with causes. 
Deploring as we do and as we should whatever of 
misfortune falls on any section, wlien that section 
comes forvvard as a claimant of control and manage- 
ment ol our general allairs, it is right to look— we 
are bound to look— into the scope and ground of the 
claim, and into the motives, method, fitness, situa- 
tion and standing of the claimant. 

Light is thrown upon these inquiries by the facts 
already presented, but much liglit may be gained 
from other facts of kindred import. One thing for 
which we (ought was the freedom of the Jlississippi 
Eivar. As some one expressed it, we were deter- 
mined the father of waters should go unvexed to 
the sea. The building of jetties at the delta of this 
great stream to deepen a channel in which sea- 
going ships might reach New-Orleans, has also at- 
tracted wide attention and stimulated the belief that 
New-Orleans must be a vast outlet to the markets 
of the world and a port of entry of commanding im- 
portance. 

The river commerce of the Southern Mississippi 
is regarded as a great tie of interest, a great safe- 
guard and assurance against purposes sectional or 
inimical, and a large foundation for the claims 



set up for Southern influence in national afl'airs. 
The canvass in some portions of the country already 
blossoms with literature in this behalf. 

This theory, as far as it ever was true, belongs to 
the past. The tread of man in all ages has been 
on lines of latitude, not on lines of longitude. 
Rivers and mountains on this Continent run north 
and south; men bridge and tunnel them, and move 
east and west. This is the ordinance of a power higher 
than a South Carolina census-taker. The enterprise 
which in its youth and helplessness floated the way 
the water ran, bas changed its course. Trade has 
veered from one point of the compass to another, 
and permanently altered its relations. 

The construction of railways has revolutionized 
traflic and transportation. Four trunk lines of steel 
roads, of which the i^ea ends are Boston, New-York, 
Philadelphia and Baltimore, now carry, each one of 
them, more freight than ever moved on the Missis- 
sippi River. The great companion and competitor to 
this transcontinental movement is the lakes and the 
Erie Canal. Besides handling a vast traflic this water 
route acts as a check on railway freights, keeping 
them down by force of competition. To this vast 
comprehensive modern current of business, tribu- 
tary streams flow in by rail and rivers, from the 
North, South and West. The tonnage across the 
Mississippi on bridges above St. Louis is twelve-fold 
the tonnage to that city by river. Twenty-five years 
ago the commerce of St. Louis was all by river ; 
last year, as shown by the records of the Merchants' 
Exchange, the railway tonnage was (J,',l-)o,7'J4, and the 
river tonnage was only 1,366,115. 

The single bridge at St. Louis has a capacity for 
ten-fold the traffic that ever floated on the Missis- 
sippi River. The actual commerce crossing this one 
bridge is four times as great as that of the river be- 
neath. Traffic south of the Ohio River and of the 
State of Missouri is but tributary now to the east and 
west current. Tlie St. Louis Merchants' Exchange 
reports that last year the number of tons moved to 
and from the East by rail was 2,;toO,S.JS ; "tons moved 
to and from the South by river, G.i'.', '.20; tons moved 
to and from the South by rail, i,05-i,0'JS. Commerce 
takes the rail, even with the river by its side. New- 
Orleans is 652 miles further from Liverpool than St. 
Louis itself is. Baltimore is 9M miles nearer than 
St. Louis to Liverpool, making a diU'erence in fa- 
vor of Baltimore as a point for shipping to Europe 
of 1,573 miles as against New-Orleans, saying noth- 
ing of the disadvantage of carrying products through 
the tropical exposures and risks of the Gulf of 
Mexico. Philadelphia, New-Y'ork and Boston are 
still nearer than Baltimore to Liverpool. 

Trade's Convincing Argument. 

But this is not all. The commercial forces of seven 
great cities have grasped this vast carrying trade, 
and hold, propel and direct it. Boston, New-York, 
Philadelphia and Baltimore at the Ea^^t, and St. 
Louis, Chicago and Cincinnati at the West, com- 
mand the machinery and the outlets and inlets 
through which the surplus products of the United 
States reach the markets of the world, and through 
which the merchandise of Europe is brought here 
and distributed. Geographical and natural advan- 



10 



SPEECH OF KOSCOE CONKLING. 



tages are favorable, but alone they would not be de- 
cisive; the vital fact is the genius, energy, enter- 
prise and capital of merchants, farmers, manuTac- 
turers and railway managers, aided by wholesome 
adjustments of tariff and other laws in the interest 
of Amcricau labor. Could science deepen the 
mouths of the Mississippi till the Great Eastern 
could load at the wharves of the Crescent City, the 
achievement would no more arrest or divert the 
movement of commerce and population East and 
West than it would control the tides of the sea, or 
change the courses of the stars. 

Southeru commerce is simple, tardy and depend- 
ent. Northern commerce is complex, intensely 
active, highly organized and independent. Northern 
methods and progression have constantly increased 
their fruits. The reverse is true of Southern me- 
thods. In 1660 the imports of New Orleans were 
$22,'.l-2i,7T--3. Last year they were only $10,840,254. 
They were less last year than in any year from 18ii0 
to 18T8. In 18G0 exports from New-Orleans were 
$10T,S12,5S0. Last year they were only $!I0,2J9,S74— 
less than in 1S70 and 1S74. The tonnage account 
varies this statemeut apparently, but only appar- 
ently, because steam vessels have been more used 
of late, and steam vessels count more rapidly in 
tonnage than in cargoes . Like retrograde and stag- 
nation appear at other Southern ports. Baltimore 
is not treated as a Southern port because it is the 
ocean terminus of a great East and West line of 
traffic. Now turn to Northern ports : 

18C0. ISSO. 

Boston's imports, $30,365,500 $08,619,658 

Boston's exports, 13,530,770 58,0:i3,5S7 

New-York's imports, 233,692,941 513,.595,398 

New-York's exports, 120,630,955 388,44 l,0ii4 

Philadelphia's imports, 14,625,801 35,901,292 

Philadelphia's exports, 5,512,755 49,612,195 

' Baltimore's imports, 9,784,773 19,956,236 

Baltimore's exports, 8,804,608 76,220,870 

The imports of these four ports in 18u0, were 
$279,491,0^5; their exports, $248,479,086. Total, 
$545,930,161. In IbSO their imports were $665,122,604 ; 
their exports, $372,293,315. Total, $l,240,430,'.i20. 
lu 1860 the foreign commerce of New-Orleans was 
24 per cent, of that of the four ports just named. 
In 18S0 it was only 8 per cent., falling of from 
$130,735,350 in 1860, to $101,092,123 in ISeO. The 
foreign tonnage of New-Orleans in 1859 was 659,083. 
In 1860 It was 632,398. In ISSO it is 760,910. Foreign 
tonnage of Charleston in ls59 was 129,764; in 1S60, 
126,41 1 ; ISSU, 1 16,233. Foreign tonnage of Savannah 
in 1839, was 86,524 ; in ISliO, 92,648 ; in 168J, 183,895. 
Foreign tonnage of Mobile in 1859, was 131,600; in 
1:^60, 16(1,909; in 1880, 61,471. Foreign tonnage ol 
Boston in 1860, was 718,587 tons ; in 18S0, 1,347,457. 
Foreign tonnage of New-York In \8'M, was 
1,973,813; in 18>-0, 7,651,282. Foreign tonnage of 
Philadelphia in 1860, was 185,162 ; in 1830, 1,391,312. 
Foreign tonnage of Baltimore in 1860, was 136,417 ; 
in 1S.:0, 1,503,713. In 1860, (year ending Jnne 30,) 
tonnage of vessels entered at seaports south of the 
Potomac was one-third as large as, the tonnage ol 
all Northern ports, both Atlantic and Pacific. This 
year, (ending June 30, IStO,) it is only abdut one- 
seventh. Democratic orators bid us look at the 



exports of cotton. I have looked at them, and find 
these fact? touching cotton and breadstuffs : 

Yalue. 
ISOO, Bales of cotton exported, 3,813,345 $191,806,555 
18T0, Bales of cotton exported, 2,093,.323 227,027.624 
1880, Bales of cotton exported, 3,810,153 211,535,905 



Fewer bales this year than 20 years ago. 

In 1860 breadstuffs exported sold for.. 
In 1S70 breadstuffs exported sold for.. 
In 1S8J breadstuffs exported sold for.. 



$34,422,320 

72,230,933 

238,036,835 



Cotton has stood still, while surplus breadstuffs 
have multiplied twelve-fold. Look again — look at 
the value of all exports as they have risen and 
fallen in one part of the country and in others. The 
value ol all exports from ports south of the Potomac 
was, in 1S6II, $199,909,773; in 1870, $192,SS9,920 ; in 
1S80, $1S7,140,5;3. Here is seen a steady decline. 
The value of aJl exports from Northern ports was, 
in 1S60, $173,279,499; in 1870, $3;)6,192,4-.>3 ; in 1880, 
$646,153,673. Here is a steady increase of nearly 
four-fold. The value of imports of all kinds to 
all ports south of the Potomac was, in 1860, 
$30,790,333; in 1 870, $2 .',774,573 ; in ISSO, $ir,.375,796. 
Here, again, is steady decline. The vahie of im- 
ports at Northern ports was, m 1860, $331,376,021 ; 
in 1870, $i:i9,(;33,014 ; in ISsO, $743,013,21.0. Here is 
an enormous constant increase. The value of im- 
ports at the ports of South Carolina was, in 1860, 
$1,569,570; in 1870, $506,394 ; in 1880, 231,535. Here 
is sad decay. The value of exports at the ports of 
South Carolina was, in 136'i, $21,193,723; in 1870, 
$10,818,669 ; in 18S0, $21,669,763. Here is stagnation 
for 20 years. 

The North's Paramount Interest. 

These unerring proofs map and locate the bulk 
and substance of the Nation's wealth and business. 
But some man may say what has all this to do with 
electing Garlield and Arthur and a Republican 
Congress? I answer, it has everything to do with 
it. Again, some man may say all these vast enter- 
prises and transactions are managed by individuals 
and corporations as private business, and what are 
they to politics or politics to them ? I answer that 
the good of every one of them depends on just and 
friendly laws and wholesome administration of the 
Government. 

I say this, speaking in the great commercial 
metropolis of the Western hemisphere, and speak- 
ing to men whose wisdom, integrity and enterprise 
have made this one of the greatest, and, in my 
belief, the most generous, benevolent city on the 
globe. I affirm that the broad issue at this election 
is whether our colossal fabric of commercial, in- 
dustrial and financial interests shall be under the 
management and protection of those who chiefly 
created and own it, or shall be handed over to the 
sway of those whose share in it is small, and whose 
experience, antecedents, theories and practices do 
not fit them or entitle them to assume its control. 

Tarills, tax laws, finances, currency, banks, courts, 
appropriations, the maintenance and enforcement 
of national as well as State laws — these are the 



SPEECH OF ROSCOE COJTKLING. 



11 



things upon which prosperity depeuds, and these 
are ihe things at stake in this election. The party 
whicli i-epiesents the tax-paying portions of the 
country is tlie parly whose representatives can best 
be trusted to vote upon drafts on the Treasury. A 
Congressman whose constituents "foot the bills," 
may not stand up alone, or with a few others, 
against his party and its caucus ; but if he belongs 
to the paity all of whose Congressmen represent 
tax-paying constituencies, they may be trusted to 
stand together against raids on the Treasury which 
they know all their districts would condemn. It is 
still more cerlaiu that if you place the tax-layiug 
power in the hands of those who do but little of 
the tax-paying, your situation is like that of the 
man who sat on a limb and sawed otf the limb be- 
tween himself and the tree. 

The consideration of disparity of interest, if it 
stood alone, ought to turn the scale in deciding 
whether to put the Government into the hands ol 
the Democratic party, "as now constituted and 
controlled," in the language of Gen. Grant. But 
inferiority of interest or antagonism of interest is, 
unfortunately, not the only consideration. Banded 
sectional resentments and sterile hates disfigure 
and pervert the political policy of those who domi- 
nate the South, foreboding immeasurable peril and 
evil should they come to wield the whole forces of 
the national Government. 

Intolerance of free action, and of equal rights in 
political or even business affairs, is too patent and 
flagrant to be denied or doubted. One glance at 
Southern elections proves ostracism, tyranny and 
wrong, in monstrous proportions. In IStiS eight 
Southern States gave majorities for Grant. In 1ST2 
seven Slates did the same thing. The Republican 
vote was very large. Only four years afterward 
2(j0,000 of these votes disappeared from the count. 
In the nine other Southern States, in the same four 
years, 300,000 Republican votes disappeared from 
the returns also, making an absence of 5IJO,OUO votes. 
Most of these stifled votes were the votes of men 
who had been slaves — freedmeu, only just crowned 
with the crown of American citizenship, and proud 
and eager — more proud and eager than the most of 
us — to exercise the right to vote. Does any sane 
man doubt that they would liave voted if they 
could, or that those who dared and could, did vote, 
and that their votes were not honestly counted ? If 
any man does doubt it, let him look at the spectacle 
presented in individual States. 

Fraud, Cruelty and Deviltry. 

The voters of Georgia were registered before the 
election in lhi;6. The white voters numbered 95,303, 
the colored, 93,458. 

In 18Ttj the whole Republican vote counted was 
50, 440. Only two years later the whole Republican 
vote counted was 5,257. Pretences have been made 
that the freedmen of Georgia do not care to vote, 
and often vote the Democratic ticket. Only read 
the savage laws of Georgia under the Action of 
vagrancy and prison management, and then learn 
of their sickening, beastly administration, and hu- 
man nature will tell you that the freedmen of 
Georgia do not support the Democratic party, but 
would cast it out if they could. 



In 1S"6 the Republican vote of Louisiana was 
77,174. Two years afterward the Republican vote 
disappeared from the election returns. Yet in 18G7, 
in this same State, the registry of voters showed 
45,199 white voters and 84,431 colored voters ; and 
in 1876, the registration showed a Republican ma- 
jority of 22,314. In North Carolina, in 1876, the 
Republican vote cast was 108,417. At the next 
Congressional election Republican votes scarcely 
appeared in the count. In Alabama, in 1872, the 
Republicans cast 90,272 votes. They elected five of 
the seven Representatives to Congress and the 
Legislature by a large majority. In 1870, 68.,230 
Republican votes were counted— two years later, 
when a Governor and members of Congress were 
elected, not one Republican vote was counted. In 
South Carolina the registration showed that the 
colored voters outnumbered the whites by 32,724. 
In 1872 Grant received 72,870—49,587 majority. 
Every Congressional District elected a Republican. 
The Legislature was Republican by 95 majority. In 
1870 the Republican vote cast was 91,870. Only two 
years aftervi^ard, when a Governor and Congress- 
men were elected, all the Republican votes counted 
in the State were 213. 

This was a very carnival of fraud, cruelty and 
deviltry. Voting-places in Republican regions had 
been established twenty-five miles apart, and the 
Republicans of South Carolina do not ride by night 
or by day — they go on foot. They are poor and ig- 
norant, but they know what emancipation meant, 
they know what the ballot-box means, they know 
which side they prayed and fought for in war, they 
know which side they would vote for in peace. 

Force and tissue ballots took care of the election 
of 1878 in South Carolina. It was testified before a 
Committee of the Senate that one man put about 
7i!0 votes into the ballot box. This makes politics 
one of the " exact sciences," much more certain 
than the dice or lots with which oflices and nomina- 
tions were raffled off here the otherday. In Missis- 
sippi more than half the population is colored. 
Every year until 1874 the Republicans had a majority 
in all elections. In 1S76 the Republican vote re- 
turned was 52,005. The next year it was but 1,168, 
and the year after 2,085. In all these States Ihe Re- 
publican vote, and even the Republican committees 
and newspapers, have been utterly suppressed. 

Alabama has just held an election. The Green- 
back candidate fur President went there and realized 
the embarrassment of the bull who butted against 
a locomotive. The whole proceeding was a shame- 
ful wrong, and Mr. Weaver says that the enforce- 
ment of the national election laws is the only thing 
which will make a fair election possible. Arkansas 
has just voted— Arkansas, where, until recently, 
Republicans always elected members of Congress 
and the Legislature ; where, at the last Presidential 
election, 38,009 Republican votes wore cast, and 
where now in no part of the State does the Republi- 
can vote appear. Repudiation and Democracy pre- 
vail mightily. 

I repeat here, as I said in the Senate, when the 
Government was taken by the throat and threatened 
with strangulation unless the election laws were 
stricken down, that the Democratic party would 
have to-day no majority in either house of Congress 



12 



SPEECH OF ROSCOE CONKLING. 



except for elections dominated and decided by vio- 
lence and fraud. 

Ill-Gotten Power Badly Used. 

Wliat use is made of all this ill-gotten power ? 
One of its chief uses has been the repudiation of 
honest debts. Every Southern State but Texas has 
lately repudiated its obligations. This aggregate 
repudiation of State and municipal debts amounts 
to about $300,000,0(10, In IS'TS the debts of Southern 
States were $242,500,000. Now these States recog- 
nize and pay interest on only $5o, 078,945. A large 
part even of this is unpaid and funded interest. On 
$20,0U0,OGO interest has been scaled down to 2 per 
cent. Whether the residue of debts are also to be 
foresworn is now an open issue. 

Is there excuse or palliation for this ? We are 
told so. What is it It is that " carpet-bag Gov- 
ernments " contracted these obligations. One diffi- 
culty with this excuse, and not the only one, is that 
it is not true. The anti-war debt, contracted be- 
fore the " carpet-bagger " ever visited the South, 
either with knapsack or without it, was $!)O,O0O,O0O. 
No part of this debt has been paid ; a large part has 
been repudiated. The " carpet-bag Governments " 
paid the interest on it regularly. 

The increase of debt since tbe war was largely for 
public improvements. But the most damaging fact 
for this excuse is that all the alleged illegal issue of 
bonds charged upon the carpet-bag Governments 
put together does not equal the sum repudiated by 
Georgia alone. 

What are we to think of men and communities 
who go into wholesale repudiation as gayly as the 
troubadore touched his guitar? When Mr. Weaver 
brought forward in the House of Kepresentives a 
bill to issue " fiat money," and make it a legal ten- 
der for all debts public and private, man after man 
from the South openly declared that if the word 
" private " were stricken out, he would vote lor the 
bill. 

They had no objection to paying off public debts 
with chafl', but private debts they thought should 
be paid in money. 

State debts are sacred above national obliga- 
tions in Southern ethics — a " sovereign State " is 
of higher essence than the Nation, and this was the 
standing defence in rebellion for " going with their 
States." Moreover, State and municipal obligations 
are for home purposes. If their own State faith and 
credit is not inviolate with Southern leaders, what 
in their hands would be the fate of oblii;ations 
which were the means, the cause, the memorials of 
their defeat? 

But we are told Gen. Hancock would watch 
them ! An angel might watch a tiger ; a child 
might attempt to divide a beefsteak with a blood- 
hound ; a lamb might lie down with a lion, but the 
lamb would lie inside. The peril of Democratic 
ascendancy in all the branches of the Goverment 
is deeper rooted than any measure within the scope 
ot existing public questions. Statesmen abroad 
talk of the" balance of power," and of " changing 
the map of Europe." These sayings mean not much 
more than might easily occur here. 

The resolution admitting Texas to the Union in 



1S45 provided for erecting out of Texas four addi- 
tional States. The area and population are both 
sufficient. The area is 2';4,000 square miles, the 
population a million and a half. Such a proceeding 
would add eight to the number of Southern Senators, 
and add to Southern power in the Electoral College. 
From New-Mexico and other Territories, whose 
traditions and prejudices have descended from slave- 
holding influences, several new States may also be 
made. Schemes exist, not in embryo, but far ad- 
vanced, to obtain "a slice of Me.\ico." Cattle steal- 
ing on the Kio Grande border has been and is a 
Iruitful occasion for incursions into Mexico. Special 
cavalry regiments, of unusual size, have been raised 
and stationed on the Texan frontier. It is an open 
secret that not long ago much exertion and alertness 
were needed to keep us out of another Mexican 
war. 

Without violating the Constitution or transcend- 
ing the usages of the Republic, at least seven new 
States could be brought in, and, in the case of some 
of them, a very plausible case could be made. The 
project would become a high party measure. Its 
success would assure complete Democratic ascend- 
ency in the Nation for a generation at least. It 
would put the Government not merely in the hands 
of the Democratic party, but of the Southern Demo- 
cratic party. 

W by should this not be done ? Who and what is 
to prevent it if the Democratic party is elected? 
The Northern wing could never resist the Southern 
wing in Congress, were these new States brought 
forward for admission. The Northern wing never 
could, never will and never can withstand the pres- 
sure of the far stronger Southern wing. Gravita- 
tion and arithmetic make such resistance impossi- 
ble, just as a pound cannot outweigh a ton, just as 
one man cannot outnumber a regiment. The past 
is pitiful in its warnings in this behalf. Despite 
pledges and Northern indignation, Northern Demo- 
crats in Congress united in voting down the Wilmot 
proviso in order to make California a slave State; 
united in voting for the Fugitive Slave law ; united 
in the mighty perfidy which overthrow the Missouri 
compromise in order to fasten slavery on Kansas 
and other States, and united in defeating the Home- 
stead law— all at the behest of the Southern ma- 
jority. 

Mr. Van Buren at last, like Macbeth, would " go 
no lurther in this bloody business," and political 
destruction was his reward. Mr. Douglas at last 
made a brave stand against sectional aggression, 
and he was hunted to his grave. Caucus is king, 
and the avenging angel is hardly more inexorable in 
decree or more unerring in retribution. 

Attacking the Judiciary. 

One of the main bulwarks of the Republic is the 
Judiciary. The courts of justice are umpire, con- 
servator, citadel. The Supreme Court is the final 
arbiter of many momentous controversies. This 
great tribunal is very obnoxious to Southern lead- 
ers in Congress and out. It is in their way. It does 
not always decide as they think. The halls of Con- 
gress rang la?t yeur with assertions, uttered with 
passionate vehemence, that the laws for protecting 



SPEECH OF EOSCOE CONKLING. 



13 



elections are tinconstitutional. Soon afterward a 
casu, on the dockut of the Sui)rcme Conn, Involving 
tlie validity of these laws, was reached, and the 
Coart decided them valid. A Regi--ter in Bank- 
ruptcy not long ago overruled the Chief Justice on 
the construction of a statnte, and so it often happens 
that the Court is notable or recondite enough to 
get at the •' true inwardness" and profound depths 
of t'.ie law as understood on the hustings, where the 
moonshiner thrives and the flre-cater reigns. Mut- 
tcringsdecp and loud, breathings of dire longings 
to "go for" the Court, have for years been gather- 
ing in volume. 

In the House of Representatives, for two or three 
years, this feeling has now and again found harsh 
voice in unseemly sinister words. Not only Ken- 
tucky, through the Chairman of the Judiciary Com- 
mittee, Sir Knott, but Missouri, North Carolina, 
and other States, assisted, I regret to saj , by a rep- 
resentative from this City, have uttered language, 
gross and calumnious of the Court, aspersing its in- 
tegrity and its decisions. "Mere drivel," "plausi- 
ble sophi^try,'■ " packed, partisan and demoralized," 
"packed tribunal" decisions to be observed "pro 
tempore'^ only, "dirty work of its masters," "made 
a i,(;Iitical decision to order," " fiery indignation of 
an inflamed people" — these are some of the bulVet- 
ings to be found in the Congressional Record, de- 
livered tometimes from carefully written speeches, 
a::d sometimes received, the Record says, with 
" loud applause.' 

To what does all this pave the way ? The Con- 
gressional Record will inform you. On the iWix of 
January, 1880, Mr. Manning, of Alississippi — a State 
well know-n to be jealously sensitive to the pure ad- 
minstration of justice and the rigorous punish- 
ment of crime— especially hideous, cowardly mur- 
der and massacre — introduced a bill to place 12 new 
additional Judges on the Supreme Bench. What an 
easy, efl'ectual, and with all, plausible, disposition 
this would make of the Court. Increased business 
would be such an innocent excuse — the Court could 
sit by sevens for some purposes and meet in banque 
for all large purposes when State sovereignty and 
State rights amendments to the Constitution and 
cotton taxes and the like are at stake. The bill 
passed to a second reading, and was referred to a 
Committee, whose Chairman, a few days afterward 
came into the House and denounced the Court, and 
paid a majority of the present Judges were " hope- 
lessly lost in a fog." For the present it would be 
premature and bungling to pass euch a bill ; a veto 
might spoil it, and it might spoil the result in some 
close Northern State. But let the Democrats elect 
their President, or rather their party— for the party is 
running— and who will say that this bill will not find 
its way to the statute book. You can all say what 
sort of Judges the 12 new ones would be. 

But no new law is needed ; nature's law, and the 
statutory limit of age at which Judges may retire, 
will, during the next four years, vacate at least four 
seats on the Supreme Bench. These four appoint- 
ments will decide the political complexion of the 
Court. With what Judges would the Democracy fill 
them 'i 

The Circuit and District Courts are obnoxious 
also. They are still more easy to deal with. Like 



the Judges of the Supreme Court, these Judges hold 
their places during good behavior, but legislatinn, 
as has olten been seen in States and in the Nation, 
has ways to plow around this stump. Abolishing a 
circuit or district, or adding to it another, takes 
his seat out from under a Judge and gets rid of him 
finally ; he is " legislated out." 

Thus the whole judicial establishment of the Re- 
public is at the disposal of the law-making power. 

With Courts revolutionized to conform to reac- 
tionary notions and dogmas, prejudices, and inter- 
ests, what may be the fate of questions ad'ccting 
" commerce among the several States," revenue, 
bank and legal-tender currency, the taxation of Gov- 
ernment bonds, the currency in which these bonds are 
payable, civil rights acts, election laws, claims grow- 
ing out of the war, claims for refunding the war tax 
on cotton, the late amendments, and many other 
grave matters, no man can predict. 

Bourbon Hatred of the Army. 

The Army, too, is envied— its "offence is rank." 
Less than four lines of the Revised Statutes are all 
tliat denies commissions in the Army to men who, 
educated at the country's cost, and presented with 
their country's sword, drew that sword against their 
country's lile. A bill to rejieal these four lines is 
now pending in the Senate, already passed to a third 
reading by the solid Democratic vote. On the sioth 
of Februai-y last, Mr. Heiskell, of Maryland, was re- 
lieved from the operation of this exclusion, and a 
Senator from Arkanas moved as an amendment its 
total repeal. The yeas and nays were demanded, 
and 3(j Senators, every Democrat who was pri sent, 
voted yea. Ohio, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania and 
New-York contributed their Democratic votes to 
this Southern proposition of " reform." Subse- 
quently the mover and all concluded to reconsider 
and drop the amendment — a sagacious conclusion in 
a " Presidential year." 

Mr. Tucker, of Virginia, moved in the House the 
repeal of this safeguard to the Army as a rider to an 
appropriation bill, but it wis huddled out of sight 
onapointof order— a judicious point in a" Presiden- 
tial year." The Democratic majority put in the 
Army bill a provision that officers now in the Army 
might receive advanced rank and pay if they would 
retire— a benevolent, thoughtful provision certainly. 
Cut if a body of Army officers could thus be coaxed 
out of the service, there would be so many vacancies 
to be filled, and filled by the President, by and with 
the advice and consent of a Democratic Senate. 
When this free-will offering was presented a cry 
arose about " gift bearing Greeks," and other un- 
gracious symptoms were manifested on the Repub- 
lican side, and so brevet rank and brevet pay stand 
over at least till the suason of Santa Claus. 

Meanwhile the Army has been reduced to a skele- 
ton, and whenever a scare, a pretence, a speck of 
war on the Mexican border or elsewhere can be dis- 
covered or invented, the Army mast be increased 
and filled up. Filled up by whom \ That depends 
on the approaching election. If Garfield and Ar- 
thur arc chosen, by Union men — men always for the 
Union to the core. If Hancock and English and the 
Democratic party get in,, by men. who." went with. 



14 



SPEECH OF EOSCOE CONKLING. 



their States." Confederate soldiers would flock to 
the standard of military as well as of civil service re- 
form, and flock in a fervor of magnanimity and de- 
votion, ready to let by-goncs be by-gones, and to 
forgive the " usurpations of Lincoln '■ and the " un- 
constitutional coercion of sovereign States." Why 
shouUUrt they ? 

Who would be warranted to assert that a Confed- 
erate soldier was false or immodest in professing 
patriotic intentions while seeking rank in the Army 
of the Republic? No man ought to assert it, and 
yet all fair men wouM agree that, other things being 
equal, preferments in the Army should be given to 
those who fought in that Army rather than to those 
who assailed it in the dread^xtremity of the Nation's 
life. 

The present tariff" and revenue laws are deemed 
very bad by the dominant element of the Democracy. 
They want to change them. They will change them 
radically whenever the way is clear. There is a whis- 
ky rel)ellion now in several States, and the officers 
of the law are powerless to suppress it. In Alabama 
the law is resisted, and the process of the Courts de- 
stroyed and defied. Recently a warrant was ii-sued 
for the arrest of one Penton, charged with such an 
offence. A Deputy Marshal went with a posse to 
execute the wanant. In his report to the Marshal 
he says Penton assembled from 25 to 50 armed men, 
and set him and the law at defiance. When cau- 
tioned to desist, Penton replied, " Wlien Uancock is 
elected this damn foolishness will stop." 

The thing to stop, thus piously predicted, is the 
collection of the tax on whisky— that mild beverage 
so sacred to the Democratic heart, so grateful to the 
Democratic stomach, and so nourishing to Dem- 
ocratic principles. The law is defied in Arkansas, 
and the officers apply to the Governor for the use of 
the arms of the United States loaned to Arkansas, 
and the Governor replies that he dare not permit the 
arms to be used, because if he should, and if a moon- 
shiner should be killed, he would have to leave the 
State. 

Washington raised an army when he was Presi- 
dent ; and marched at its head to put down such 
lawlessness ; and he kept the army in Pennsylvania 
three mouths after it was put down to see it did not 
get up again. Now, there are 32 soldiers of the 
United States in Alabama and 57 in Arkansas, and 
if a hundred mure should be ordered to either State, 
the country would not be big enough to hold the noise. 
Hancock's Order No. 40 would leap from the Demo- 
cratic scabbard, and we should hear how " the mili- 
tary must bealways subordinate to the civil power," 
and how " the Courts are open." These obnoxious 
laws arc marked lor "reform" and "a change" 
whenever the Democratic hand can reach them. 

Defying the Constitution. 

The recent amendments to the Constitution and 
the laws made in pursuance of them are oljjects of 
unabated Democratic wrath— a wrath going to such 
excess as to compel the belief that free fraud in 
elections is deemed the only adequate means to 
party success. These amendments of freedom, espe- 
cially the thirteenth and fourteenth, were estab- 
lished in the Constitution against the most desperate 



opposition the Democracy could make. As they 
gained power in States which had already ratiiied 
them, in impotent passion the farce was enacted of 
formally rc.-cinding and withdrawing the irrevocable 
assent which had been finally given. This was 
done in Indiana and New-Jersey, and Mr. Tweed 
did it in New- York. 

From first to last, the organs of Democratic doc- 
trine have declared these amendments illegally car- 
ried — illegal, because Democratic Slates that were 
out fighting were not in to vote. They never yet 
have said or admitted that the amendments were 
legally adopted. They did say in National Conven- 
tion, in 1ST2, thai they opposed re-opening the ques- 
tiofis settled by the amendments, and they did say, 
in 1876, that they would accept them ; but that they 
were legally valid they have never said. 

These amendments are constantly and flagrantly 
defied iu more than half theTJCmocratic Slates, and 
have been for years. The laws enacted under them 
have been denounced in every form, and denounced 
as null and void, even since the Supreme Court has 
solemnly decided otherwise. It was to get rid of 
these laws that the revolutionary plot was laid last 
year to stop the wheels of Government, to close the 
Courts and Post Oflices, and put out the beacon lights 
on the sea and on the lakes unless a repeal was 
yielded. With a thoroughbred Democratic Presi- 
dent, whatever may happen in form to the amend- 
ments, they will become more a de::d letter than 
a quickening spirit, and the laws made to enforce 
ihem will be swept like leaves before a gale. Should 
these laws bo swept away, and should the spirit 
which assails theiu in the South, and which called 
them into being, continue to rage, mildew will 
follow in the wake. 

When Lincoln issued his proclamation of eman- 
cipation, men and women iu this city were mad- 
dened by being made to believe that the slaves set 
free would swarm to the North, crowd out white 
labor, and cut down its wages. The draft riots were 
largely incited by this wicked, insane pretence. 
Throughout the North this was the appeal to the la- 
boring man, and many members of Congress who had 
supported Lincoln were defeated at the ensuing 
election. Vainly we pleaded for reason. We said 
no, men do not fly from liberty ; they fly from slavery 
and wrong. Events have vindicated the logic of 
freedom. 

Once more I repeat the argument and the warning. 
The black man wants to remain by the graves of his 
fathers, but let persecutions go on, and the story of 
Pharaoh and of Egypt will be repeated. 

An exodus, not of a few despairing souls, but a 
real exodus, will begin, depriving Southern fields of 
the hands that should and would till them, and bring- 
ing to the North and the West a population not 
inured to Northern climes, and not adapted to use- 
fulness and advantage here, which, fairly treated, 
would come from them iu the South. 

The national banking system is another eyesore 
to the opposition. Their National Conventions have 
denied all power of Congress to authorize banks. 
By votes and speeches in Cimaress, by declaratio.is 
of conventions and leaders, by studied amendments 
oflTered to the bills under which the national debt 
has been refunded, the national banking system baa 



SPEECH OF ROSCOE CONKLING. 



15 



been etrucTi wherever a blow could be put in. This 
fabric of bankiiiLT is now inwrouj,'lit not only witli 
the business of the country, but with the mainte- 
nance of specie payments— it stands a lion in the 
path of fiatmoney, inflation, andallthe long train of 
financial heresies which possess the Democratic 
mind, especially in the South. In unnumbered 
ways, direct and indirect, this vast interest is con- 
stantly exposed to the action of Congress. 

The Cincinnati Convention seems to have felt the 
need of a little caution on this point when it nomi- 
nated Mr. English for Vice-President. lie is Presi- 
dent of a national bank. They nominated a Union 
General as a blind to the soldiers and a bank officer 
as a blind to the bankers. Evidently it is thought 
the Northern Democratic team drives better with 
blinders. But even blinders do not always answer. 
In ISUJ, after solemnly asserting, j ust wlien the rebel- 
lion was gasping its last, that the war for the Union 
was a Kiilure, the Democratic Convention, atinstiga- 
tion coming then from the sheltering refuge of the 
Canadian shore, the same instigation which prompt- 
ed a like expedient now, put up a Union General. 
That General did not issue order No. 4i) in the midst 
of lawlessness and butchery, which civil authority 
could not arrest. No, he issued orders arresting the 
Legislature of Maryland, a State which had not se- 
ceded, and he issued orders proclaiming martial 
law and suspending the habeas corpus at election 
time, and placed soldiers as Supervisors of the polls. 
But even with such a Union General the disguise 
was too thiiu 

Seeking to Plunder the 
Treasury. 

"War claims npon the Treasury have been and will 
be a subject fruitful of much agitation. I am moved 
to refer to it by the wholly groundless assertion in 
regard to it now going the rounds of party journals. 
The fashion of this assertion seems to have been set 
by Mr. Randall, Speaker of the House of Represen- 
tatives. Mr. Randall is one of the ablest and most 
intelligent, as he is one of the most courageous, 
men of his party, and I speak of him with much re- 
spect. In several speeches he has taken up the 
matter of Southern claims, always to say that they are 
barred by the fourteenth amendment of the Consti- 
tution. It puzzles me to see how so discerning a 
man can have fallen into such an error. The pro- 
ceedings over which he presides constantly refute 
the assertion. 

In tlie fourteenth amendment stand these vrords : 
*' Neither the United States, nor any State, shall as- 
sume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid 
of insurrection or rebellion against the United 
States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of 
any slave, but all such debts., obligations, and claims 
shall be held illegal and void.'" The claims which 
stand in sta;;gering totals in bills already before 
Coi.gress, and in other bills said to be waiting, are 
not touched by this section of the Constitution. 

For example, it is insisted that the diiect tax im- 
posed by the Nation on all States in ISOl should, as 
to the seceded States, be refunded. Tiie amount 
claimed is |;-',4',)2,n0. Again, it is said the war tax 
laid on cotton should be refunded. The argument 



is that cotton, like wheat and corn, is a product of 
the earth, and ttiat wheal and corn were not taxed, 
and therefore, C'ttou should not have been taxed. 
Tlieie is plausibility in this ; but petroleum is a 
product of the earth also, and that was heav.ly 
taxed, not only during the war, but afterward, and 
yet Pennsylvania has never claimed that the money 
should be refunded. The amount of cotton tax 
claimed is $170,180,220. 

Again, buildings were occupied, crops were 
trampled, fences and wood were burned, provisions 
were consumed, edifices were demolished, and re- 
gions were liid waste by the armies of the Union. 
The total of such claims dizzies arithmetic. These 
are not " debts or obligations incurred in aid of in- 
surrection or rebellion " — decidedly not in aid of re- 
bellion. Tliey are claims because of act^ done to 
crush rebellion. The constitutional amendment 
does not come within gun-shot of them. 

The error of the distinguished speaker is the more 
puzzling because, as reported, he said in another 
part of his address recently that the Republican 
majority in Congress had paid $100,000,(00 of such 
claims. This I presume is true, if he means that Re- 
publicans have voted to pay Union men whose prop- 
erty was taken for public use the value of the prop- 
erty so taken. But whether correct in the amount 
or not, he is certainly correct in saying that a vast 
sum has been so paid. Does not this fact clearly 
show that such claims are not e>:linguished by the 
Constitution ? If they were so extinguished, surely 
the law-making power would not have been so stupid 
or wicked as to pay them year after year, and this 
without any member of cither house ever suggest- 
ing that the Constitution stood in the way. These 
appropriations for Southern claims also throw light 
on the question whether Republican action in Con- 
gress has been hostile and cruel to the South. The 
statutes on the subject enacted by Republicans made 
the loyalty of the claimant a sine qtia non, and the 
Democrats have repeatedly voted to repeal the loy- 
alty test, and bills for this purpose are now pending. 
There can be no doubt that the way is wide open to 
all the Southern claims which a majority can be 
found to vote for and a President to sigu. 

There is as little question that large and ever in- 
creasing sums are plucked from the Treasury in the 
River and Harbor bills to dredge small Southern 
streams and runs, entirely local and of no possible 
use as channels of national commerce. The 
creeks and bayous and ponds thus improved at the 
general expense, some of them, cannot be found 
named on the map, and all of them are put into ap- 
propriation bills for the pecuniary or political ad- 
vantage of individuals and corporations. 

The erection of public buildings for Courts, Post 
OiHces, and the like, at the national cost, is another 
serious and increasing drain on the Treasury. From 
small places where no such expenditure is needed 
come applications for public buildings; many of 
them have recently passed the Senate. One place in 
North Carolina where a public building was voted 
has not more than 2,5< inhabitants. No one at all 
familiar with the facts can doubt that, with full De- 
mocratic swing, the doors of the Treasury will open, 
and copious stieams will run South and empty into 
i the pockets of no end of expectants. 



16 



SPEECH OF EOSCOE COISrK;LING, 



How Democrats Have Not 
Saved Money. 

Whichever way we turn, reasons rise up before us 
for keeping the staff in the handsof those who have 
vastly most at stake in the wholesome preservation 
of the Government, its revenues, and its laws. 
Those with the least at stake fought for one-half the 
jovernraent, and now the question is whether we 
uul better vote them both halves. The Democratic 
party has had possession of one house of Congress 
fur four years, and of both houses for two years. 
What useful thing has been done or proposed? They 
have stricken some millions of tax from whisky and 
tobacco. They have attempted by revolutionary 
means to put the Executive under duress, and to 
cripple the Government in order to overthrow just 
and time-honored laws. What else? I do not 
know. 

It is said the Democracy have reduced appropria- 
tions. I do not so understand it. The claim of 
economy is no better than a juggle. Here are the 
exact figures year by year. Republican and Demo- 
crat, of sums annually appropriated for current ex- 
penses, stated in currency and gold: 



For Fiscal Year. 
1874 (Republican). 
If75 (Republican).. 
187(5 (Republican).. 
1877 (Democratic).. 

1578 (Democratic).. 

1579 (Democratic).. 
IStO (Democratic).. 
18S1 (Democratic).. 



Currency. Gold. 

. . $172,-i'.10,70J 82 $1.53,855,595 S3 

.. 155,017,758 20 137,(155,769 28 

.. 147,714,il40 81 129,093,718 0:] 

., 124,122,010 92 115,0lil,lii4 12 

... 88,3:0,983 13 8(1,230,415 r)3 

... 172,010,809 21 171,072,775 59 

..102,404,047 76 1(J2,40J,(;47 76 

154,118,212 64 154,118,212 64 



It will be seen that under a Republican majority 
appropriations steadily decreased down to Demo- 
cratic accession in 1877. In the first year the Demo- 
crats continued reduction, omitting, however,needed 
appropriations. In their second year — the year pre- 
ceding Congressional elections— they badly neglected 
to provide for many obvious and indispensable ap- 
propriations. This was exposed on the spot as an 
electioneering device, but the figures went forth 
and had their effect. There they stand in the tables 
of 1878 as a great apparent saving, loudly bragged 
about at the time. But as everybody lamiliar with 
the workings of the Government knew beforehand 
must be, the pretended saving w hich had bteu pur- 
posely left out of the regular appropriation bills 
came in as " deficiency bills " after the election, at 
the next session. There stands the proof in the 
tables of 1879. The appropriations that year were 
much greater than in 1876, the last year of Republi- 
can rule— greater in currency by $24,301,868 40; 
greater in gold by $41,979,057 56. 

For last year tUe appropriations exceeded the last 
Republican year more than $15,0i;0,000, and for this 
year they are considerably larger ; and in both years 
appropriations were purposely omitted in cases in 
which they are sure to be supplied at the next 
session. 

Before speaking of finances it may be well to read 
a telegram sent it seems by General Hancock lo 
General Plaisted, of Maine, wlien it was said that 
the result of Tuesday's election was a fusion victory 
in that State: 



" Governor's Island, N. Y., Sept. 14, 1880. 
" To Hon. H. M. Plaisted, Bangor, Maine ; 

" Accept my congratulations on the glorious result 
of yourcampaign." I'o^/r campaign — it seems really 
when we think of it to have been in one sense very 
much Mr. Plaisted's campaign. This way of put- 
ting it reminds me of tlie end of an Indian as re- 
lated by a man who said he shot him. Said he : "I 
shot an Injun, and I wouldn't believe an Injun 
Could spread so — I shot him, and he spread down 
four blankets and a Buffalo skin and just got down 
and died all over them." 

Mr. Plaisted seems to have spread a good deal of 
canvass and just got down and died all over it — there 
is truth in calling it his campaign. General Han- 
cock proceeds: ''It will inspire our friends with 
confidence and strengthen them in the preliminary 
battles which remain to be fought elsewhere, and 
which need all our forces. 

"W. S. Hancock.'" 

This last statement I believe—" need all our forc- 
es,'''' that is to say, all the inflationists and all others 
who can be induced to vote the Democratic ticket — 
the indications are that it will require more than all 
these forces. 

Now read along with this dispatch the address Of 
the Secretary ol the "National Democratic Labor 
party," on the same day. Says this address : "Our 
victory in Maine surpasses expectations." The 
sageness of that remark reminds me of Isaac New- 
ton, who used to be Commissioner of Agriculture— 
an excellent old man, but not as able as his great 
namesake. Had he been a Soinh Carolina census 
taker, he wouldn't have been handy at all. They 
thought the old gentleman was spending too much 
money, and they brought him to book before a com- 
mittee to give an account of himself. They bad- 
gered him awhile, and then he said : " The fact is 
the expenses of my Department has exceeded my 
most sanguine expectations— and I knowed they 
would all the time," 

" Our victory in Maine exceeds expectations. A 
straight Greenback candidate for Governor has 
been elected, and two or three Congressmen with 
the Legislature. The party of Solon Chase is vic- 
torious over the hard money Rei)ublicans and Bour- 
bon Democrats." After some further pleasant allu- 
sions to the Bourbons, the address adds: "Their 
own party having ftillen to pieces, they lent our 
ticket their support in hopes to usurp the credit of 
our victory." The address closes by predicting "the 
coming disintegration of Bourbon Democracy, and 
their final surrender to the despised 'rag baby.' 
" By order of the National Executive Committee. 
" Lee Cuandall, Stcrelary.'''' 

I ask honest money Democrats to consider the 
spectacle here presented. General Hancock, the 
spokesman and exponent of his party, sits down in 
seriousness, when he supposed Maine had elected as 
Governor a man never a Democrat, and now snake- 
bitten with the delusion of C:;t money inflation, and 
ofl'ers his congratulations and rejoicing over such a 
rci-ult. Last year the avowed inflation vote in 
Maine was about 48,000, and the Democratic vote 
only about 22,000 ; so that Mr. Plaisted's support 



SPEECH OF ROSCOE COXKLING. 



17 



was two-thirds of it from out and out avowed paper 
money expansionists. On this state of case, the 
man the Democrats propose for President malces 
lightning his messenger to exclaim: "Accept my 
congratulations on the glorious result of your cam- 
paign." 

Looking around on the men seated on the plat- 
form, and remembering the lineage of whirli thoy 
come, I remind tlicm of ancestral teachings and 
achievements. Wliat would be thought of such an 
episode and of sucli a posture of a great party, by 
the illustrious men of many nationalities — men pro- 
foundly learned in the science of government and 
national prosperity — who came to these shores, and 
building, not in the gray twilight of dawning ex- 
perience, but with the beams of all the centuries 
streaming upon them, laid deep the foundations of 
a government of the people, for the people, and by 
the people. 

What would they say of such a predicament of a 
party whose name descended from grand epochs in 
our history, seems the only ancient possession that 
remains— a party which, spurning the teachings of 
Jefferson, Jackson and the rest, seeks such affilia- 
tions and resorts to such shifts. What would they 
say of a party whose leader and mouthpiece in the 
last quarter of the nineteenth century publicly ap- 
plauds the event, when he supposed that a State has 
given a vote in favor of National degradation. Na- 
tional dishonor and National absurdity ? 

The Great Work of Resumption. 

In the face of the facts, bald and arrant as the 
claim is, the country is gravely told of wondrous 
Democratic economies, and it now begins to bo 
stated, that the resumption of specie payments was 
really brought about by the frugality of a Demo 
cratic Congress. If a race was to be sailed on the 
sea of fiction, the inventor of this statement would 
surely take the cup. 

The resumption of specie payments was a tran- 
scendent acliievement. The credit of it bc-longs to 
some party, and to that party future generations 
will look back with grateful admiration. Whoever 
would know the truth about it can easily do so. 

Clamoring for Repudiation. 

After 1 he war we had afloat well toward a thou- 
sand millions of paper currency. It fluctuated in 
value from 08 to 70 cents in the dollar. The public 
debt was more tlian $2,800,000,000, and more than 
$0,00;>,0-,0,OCO of it bore interest. The annual inter- 
est cliarge was $150,000,000. The first Presidential 
election afterwards was in ISiiS. The two parties, 
of course, arrayed themselves on the greatest finan- 
cial i^suc which has ever arisen in this country, or 
perhaps in any country. Tlic question was, what 
should be done with the colossal debt inflicted by 
the rebellion, and with the sea of paper promises 
we had been compelled to put out. The Democratic 
party pronounced for repudiation. The declaration 
was covert and indirect, but it meant repudiation. 
They resolved that all debts should be paid in paper 
promises unless the olillgation cxprcs>ly on its face 
eai'i otherwise, or unless the law mentioned that 
coin should be paid. They resolved that " Govern- 



ment bonds and all other securities " should all be 
taxed. Tliey resolved that " every species of pro- 
perty "should be taxed, and taxed atits "real value." 
They resolved that there should be but one currency 
for the Government and the " bondholder." 'taken 
together, these declarations were plain repudiation. 

Nobody pretended that the obligations of the 
Government were payable in honest money, for the 
reasons which alone could allow them to be so paid 
under the Democratic resolution. Had their pay- 
ment in honest money been specified literally and 
technically in the way required by the resolution, 
there would have been no efficacy of meaning 
in such a resolve; and declaring that the bond- 
holder should have only the same currency that the 
Government received, clearly and conclusively 
meant that payment of bonds was to be maile in 
legal-tender notes. 

The bonds had been sold on an express agree- 
ment that they should never be taxed, and exemp- 
tion from taxation had entered into the transaction 
and been discounted as an clement of value, and 
paid for in the price given for the bonds. To tax 
not only the bonds, but " every species of property at 
its real value," would have taxed a barrel of flo;iras 
well as a barrel of whisky, would have taxed land, and 
all else. Such a scheme would not only have worn a 
frontlet of repudiation, but would have thrown into 
chaos the whole revenue and business of the country. 
This was the Democratic position. 

The Republican Position. 

The Republicans in their National Convention de- 
clared two thiugs : First, that repudiation is a na- 
tional crime ; and that every debt must be paid to 
the uttermost, not according to the letter, but the 
spirit of the law. Second, that the wise course was 
to improve our credit so as to refund our bonded 
debt at lower interest, and that this could not be 
done if repudiation, open or covert, partial or to;al, 
was threatened or suspected. On this platform 
Gen. Grant was elected. His first Presidentialsyl- 
lable was spoken on the portico of the Capitol to 
assembled thousands, and spoken with lips which 
only an instant before had touched the r>ib!e to 
solomnize an oath of faithfulness in oftice. In his 
inaugural address then delivered, stand these words : 

" A great debt has been contracted in securing to 
us and our posterity the Union; the payment of this 
debt, principal and interest, as well as the return to 
a specie basis as soon as it can be accomplished 
without material detriment to the debtor class or to 
the country at large, must be provided for. To pro- 
tect the national honor, every dollar of Government 
indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless 01 lier- 
wise expressly stipulated in the contract. Let it be 
understood that no repudiator of one farthing of 0111 
public debt will be trusted in public place, and it 
will go far toward strengthening a credit which 
(night to be the best in the world, and will ulti- 
mately enable us to rei)lace the debt w'ith bonds 
bearing less interest than we now pay." 

Pubhc Credit Act— 1869. 

This sii;nificant declaration jiroduced a deep sen- 
sation. Both houses of Congress were RepuLilican. 



18 



SPEECH OF ROSCOE CONKLING. 



Immediately a bill was introduced in each house 
" to strengtlien the public credit." In less than a 
fortnight it had passed both houses and was ap- 
proved by President Grant March 18, 18G9. Itwastlie 
fir?t acthe ever signed. It declared that " the faith 
of the United States is solemnly pledged to the pay- 
ment in coin or its equivalent of all the obligations 
of the United States not bearing interest, known as 
United States notes, and of all the interest-bearing 
obligations of the United States, except in cases 
where the law authorizing the issue of any such 
obligations had expressly provided that the same 
may be paid in lawful money or other currency than 
£;old and silver. * * * j^^nd the United States 
also solemnly pledges its faith to make provision at 
the earliest practicable period for the redemption of 
the United States notes in coin." 

This bill was resisted by the solid Democracy in 
both houses. They voted against it, they voted 
against considering it, they voted for amendments 
to pervert and reverse its meaning. Senator Thur- 
man, of Ohio, moved to add to it: " Provided that 
nothing herein contained shall apply to obligations 
called 5-20 bonds." Every Democratic Senator 
present voted for this, every Republican voted 
against it. The 5-20 bonds then constituted the 
great bulk of the public debt, and this proviso would 
have frustrated and vitiated the whole act. Senator 
Davis, of Kentucky, moved to amend so as to scale 
down the bonds to the coin value at the time of the 
currency received for them. This was supported 
by the Democrats, Senator Bayard, of Delaware, 
among others, speaking in its favor. Senator 
Yickers, of Maryland, moved to amend so as to pre- 
vent coin ever being purchased to be used to pay 
bonds. Senator Bayard denounced the bill as 
wrong, unwise, and as a " stock jobbing opera- 
tion." After all this the bill passed, and not one 
Democrat voted for it in either house. 

Funding Act of 1870. 

The next step in this progress was the Funding 
Act of July, 1870, the act authorizing the redemption 
of the 5-20 or 6 per cent bonds by negotiating bonds 
bearing lower interest. All the Democrats resisted 
this bill also, and voted against it. Exempting the 
new bonds from taxation was opposed. In the 
Senate, 'Mr. Bayard moved to strike out the provision 
and to subject the bonds to taxation ; all the Demo- 
crats voted for it. Again, Mr. Bayard moved an 
amendment to bring back the State banking system, 
and all the Democrats voted for that also. The bill 
was at length carried by Republican votes. By this 
time our currency had much appreciated, and fund- 
ing at lower interest began. 

Opposing Specie Resumption. 

In 1874, by a vote not Democratic alone, an infla- 
tion bill made its way through both liouscs. This 
bill proposed to keep out permanently twenty-six 
millions of legal tender notes belonging to the 
Treasury reserve which had been put out tempora- 
rily during the panic of 1873, and to put out eighteen 
millionB more. The suffering produced by the panic 
drove many Republicans into the support of this 
measure as an experiment and expedient for relief. 



The pressure upon President Grant to induce him to 
sign it, exceeded anything of the kind I have ever 
witnessed. Men who should have upheld his liands, 
not only threw their weight upon him, but industri- 
ously criticised and even ridiculed his venturing to 
set up his opinion agaiast a majority in such a cri- 
sis. He vetoed the bill, however. In his Message 
returning it unsigned, he referred to the declaration 
of the Republican party, to his inaugural, to the act 
of 1S69 already cited, and he said the proposed act 
would violate faith, and he was against it. This 
happened on the22d of April, 1874. 

Foreshadow of the Resumption 
Act. 

About a month later a conversation occurred one 
evening between the President and his chief ad- 
viser. Secretary Fish, and others, about the wise 
course out of the increased difficulties which had: 
come from the disasters of the year before. One of 
those present at this conversation was Senator 
Jones, of Nevada. So struck was he with the views, 
expressed by President Grant, that the next day 
(June 4, 1S74,) he by letter requested that the sub- 
stance of them should be put in writing and a copy 
sent him. This was done, and the memorandum 
made by the President was handed about among- 
members of the two houses, and afterward found its- 
way into print. Here it is. It is the foreshadow of 
the Resumption act, to which the veto had paved the 
way. I read two passages : 

"I believe it a high and plain duty to return to a 
specie basis at the earliest practical day, not only 
in compliance with legislative and party pledges, 
but as a step indispensable to lasting national pros- 
perity. I believe, further, that the time has come 
when this can be done, or at least begun, with less 
embarrassment to evei"y branch of industry than at 
any future time, after resort has been had to unstable 
and temporary expedients to stimulate unreal pros- 
perity and speculation on a basis other than coin, 
the recognized medium of exchange throughout the 
commercial world. The particular mode selected to 
bring about a restoration of the specie standard is noi 
of so much consequence as that some plan be devised, 
the time fixed when currency shall be exchangeable 
for coin at par, and the plan adopted rigidly adhered 
to. * * * I would like to see a provision that at a 
fixed day — say, July 1, 1S7G — the currency issued by 
the United States should be retleemed in coin on 
presentation to any Assistant Treasurer, and that alt 
the currency so redeemed should be canceled and 
never rc-issaed. Toeffectthisitwouldbenecessary 
to authorize the issue of bonds, payable jn gold, 
bearing such interest as would command par in gold, 
to be put out by the Treasury only in such sums as 
should from time to time be aeeded for the pur- 
pose of redemption." 

The Resumption Act. 

It was not long before this advice found the form 
of law. A committee composed wholly o) Republi- 
can Senators, of whom I was myself one, prepared 
the bill now known as the Resumption Act. It was 
not the work of any one Senator^ nor did it espreaa 



SPEECH OF EOSCOE CONKLING. 



19 



literally and m full, perhap?, the views of any single 
iiienibci- of tlie coinniitlee. It was a conipromibo 
of somewhat conflicting opinions. It was submit- 
ted 10 e\eiy Republican member of the Senate, and 
overy one, after consideration, determined to vote 
frit. It was bronglit forward in the Senate, and 
every Republican Senator did vote for it. Every 
Democratic Senator present voted against it. It 
went to tiie House, and there encountered a solid 
Democratic o[)position, but it was carried by Re- 
publican votes. President Grant promptly signe 1 
it. It fixed tlie 1st of January, 1879, for the resump- 
tion of -specie payments; and wlien the day came, 
as noiselessly and naturally as night melts into day, 
specie payments were resumed. 

Democratic Opposition to 
Resumption, 

The adoption of this bill for resumption is easier 
told than it was done. The Democracy rose as one 
man in both houses against it. It was denoun- 
ced as an absurdity and a sham, and was called many 
wild and uncleanly names. Senator Thurman, Sena- 
tor Bayard, and other Democratic Senators, vehe- 
mently opposed it. This was in January, 1S~5. 
Immediately Democrats of all shades, including the 
Greenbicker, the country over, opened fire on the 
act. The next year the Democratic party met in 
National Convention at St. Louis. There the Re- 
publican party was denounced for "enacting hin- 
drances to a return to specie payments." The 
climax of the resolution was in these words: "As 
such hindrance we denounce the Resumption act 
of 1875, and we here demand its repeal." Mr. Til- 
den, the nominee of the Convention, iu his letter of 
acceptance, stood up to the platform, and also railed 
against the act, and throughout the canvass reasons 
were given which no man could number why re 
sumption never would, never could, take place un- 
der such a law. At the next session repeal bills 
■were brought forward, and the Democrats voted 
for them separately and as riders to appropriation 
bills. 

Prosperity Despite the Demo- 
crats. 

Meanwhile, the world seeing that we meant to be 
honest after all, notwithstanding repudiation at the 
South and threats in the North, and vicious declar- 
ations in national conventions, it became easy to 
negotiate 4>^ and 4 per cent, bonds at par and above 
par. This was done, and the debt has melted away 
at the rate of $3,000,000 a month; the interest 
charge has been reduced one-half, and when the 
bonds of high interest rate still outstanding fall 
due, in 18S1 and afterward, they also will be replaced 
by 4 or 3.65 pt-r cent, bonds, and then the interest 
charge will fall much lower still. This all looks 
pretty well— very well by the side of the exploits ot 
the last Democratic Administration— Mr. Bu- 
chanan's—which increased the debt tenfold in time 
of peace, paid 12 per cent, interest on Treasury 
notes, and sold «> per cent. '20 year bonds for S9 cents 
on the dollar. It is well to add that during the last 
five years of their Congressional control the Repub- 
licans dismissed one hundred and twenty millions 



of annual taxes, thirty-one millions of tariff duties, 
and eighty-nine millions of internal revenue. I 
hold up the record since ISCO, when the bloody 
drama of the rebellion opened, and I say that the 
Democratic party has been wrong and beaten on all 
the great issues of the century. 

Cry for a " Change." 

A triumphant Nationality— a regenerated Consti- 
tution—a free Republic— an unbroken country — un- 
tarnished credit— solvent finances- unparalleled 
prosperity— all these are ours, despite the policy 
and the efforts of the Democratic party. 

Along with the amazing improvement in National 
finances, we have amazing individual thrift on every 
side. In every walk of life new activity is felt. 
Labor, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, en- 
terprise and investments, all are flouri>hing, con- 
tent and hopeful. But in the midst of this h.irmony 
and encouragement comes a harsh discord crying, 
" Give us a change— anything for a change." This 
is not a bearing year for " a ehanse." Every other 
crop is good, but not the crop of " change " — that 
crop is only good when the rest are bad. The 
country does not need or wish the change proposed, 
and the pressing invitation of our Democratic 
friends is much like " Will you walk into my parlor ? 
said the spider to the fly." A good-natured but firm 
" No, I thank you," will be the response at the 
polls. 

The Candidates. 

The candidates we support, besides being Repub- 
lican, are largely fitted for the stations whicli await 
them. 

Some service with him in Congress has made me 
well acquainted with Gen. Garfield. That he has 
the intelligence, experience and habits of mind 
which fit a man for the Presidential oflice. I think I 
know. Without early advantages, he, years ago, 
achieved prominence among the leading men in 
public life, and that prominence he has maintained 
ever since in all the collisions between individuals 
and parties. That he is competent to the duties 
before him, there seems to me no reason to doubt. 

Of Gen. Arthur it seems needless here to speak. 
!Most of you know him, and all who know him know 
a high-souled, honorable man — honorable iu every 
position in which he ever stood — a man to be trusted 
in every relation of life. If the character, the popu- 
larity and personality of the candidate can add 
strength to the Republican cause, Gen. Arthur will 
add that strength wherever he is known, and most 
where he is best known. 

Upon its record and its candidates the Republican 
party asks the country's approval, and stands ready 
to avow its purpose for the future. It proposes to 
rebuild cur commercial marine, driven from the sea 
by Confederate cruisers, aided and abetted by for- 
eign hostility. It proposes to foster labor, industry 
and enterprise. It proposes to stand for education, 
humanity and progress. It proposes to administer 
the Government honestly, to preserve an.ity with 
all the world, observing our own obligations with 
others, and seeing that others observe theirs with 
us, to protect every citizen of whatever birth or 



20 



SPEECH OP AVILLIAM M. EVARTS. 



color in his rights and equality before the law, in 
eluding liis ri:,'ht to vote and to bo counted, to up- 
hold the public credit and the sanctity of cngago- 
meuts ; and by doing these things, the Republican 



party proposes to assure to industry, humanity and 
civilization in America the amplest welcome and 
the safest home. — From the Xeiv-York Semi- Weekly 
Times, Tuesday, September 21, 1880. 



The Address of Hon. WiLLiA3r M. Evarts, in the Academy of 3Iusic, 
Keto-Yorh City, Wednesday evening, September 29, 1880. 



Mr. Chairman, Fellow-Citizens, Ladies and 
Gentlemen : The kind reception which you have 
accorded, iu advance, to whatever I may be able to 
contribute in the canvass now pending, to the prop- 
er judgment of the American people on the great is- 
sue before them, inclines me to think that I was 
wrong in an opinion which I have intended to es- 
pouse, that it was the press that was the only potent 
orator iu these popular discussions. By their mag- 
niticer.t enterprise and apparatus they speak to mil- 
lions where we speak to thousands. By their per- 
petual possession of the public ear they lay down, 
line upon line, precept upon precept, in season and 
out of season, whether men wdl hear or whether 
they will forbear. The orator has no such hold upon 
the attention or the respect of the people. But I 
know that if one speak, even in a whisper, in the 
cause of his country, and for love of it, the people of 
the United States will catch up the sound; and 
wherever patriotism has not died out, and wlier- 
ever liberty is not suppressed, and wherever suflVage 
is honored and respected, they will carry on that 
voice, though lost in the final decision which has 
triumplied, or has faded away. 

The question before the country, the question be- 
fore this vast representative assembly, is, to which 
of the two parties that divide the United States the 
conduct of its affairs for the ensuing four years may 
be safely, may be wisely, may be hopefully, may be 
dutiably trusted by a people loving its honor, re- 
specting its duty, and the value of the institutions 
which we have inherited from a noble ancestry. 
Twenty-four years ago the people of this country 
intrusted the management of their affairs to the De- 
mocratic party of the United States. Twenty-four 
years ago they trusted to a Democrat of Pennsyl- 
vania, Buchanan, [laughter and hisses.] the manage- 
ment of her affairs. To-day it is proposed to you 
that you shall restore the same Democratic party in 
the hands of another Pennsylvania Democrat. 
Twenty years ago the people of the country intrust- 
ed the management of their affairs to the Republi- 
can party, born of patriotism and devoted to liberty. 
[Applause.] Twenty years ago they thus intrusted 
their aff.drs to the hands of an Illinois Republican. 
[Applause.] And, substantially, the people of this 
country are to answer to-day the inquiry to their 
conscience, the test of history, the judgment of the 
world, whether they repent of taking power from 
Buchanan, and repent of giving power to Lincoln. 

The People Rebuking the 
Democrats. 

Active fault-nnders may. in this process of 2.1 year-', 
have had piivate or public grievances. There may 



have been failures of equality always to the great- 
ness of the demands, but as history reads it, as for- 
eign nations read it, as the great God-fearing people 
of the United States read it, if, next November the 
Pennsylvania Democrat is restored to power, it is a 
verdict that the people have tired of patriotism 
and are weary of liberty. [" Good, good," and great 
applause.] Now, in these 20 years, the Democratic 
party, made up as it was when it was trusted under 
Buchanan, asked — five times asked— to be restored 
to power, and five times the people have answered 
in the same way: "Never; no, never." [Ap- 
plause.] They tried it during the war, when the 
Nation Was in the throes of desperation, when every 
coward had joined the Democratic party — if he had 
a jiart}' — when every coward in the whole North was 
arrayed in the army of non-fighting traitors, and 
the people said : " It is sad to us that our youth 
have perished, and that our youth must perish ; it 
is sad to us that mourners are to go about our 
streets for a whole generation; it is sad to us that 
the substance of this people, thrifty, industrious, 
fond of the pursuits of gain, should be poured out 
like water, and that, so far as we can see, the last 
dollar may be put forth. But we know what made 
our population what it was ; we know what made 
our waste, and we will maintain 'Liberty a!,d 
Union, one and inseperable,' though the last man 
should fall in his lot, and the last dollar should be 
spent in the conflict." [Applause] They asked 
again after the war was over, and after the resist- 
ance to the loyal Government had taken the form of 
controversies about reconstruction, and the appeal 
to the people was that the Republican party, having 
lallenintoa quarrel, and having on their liai;ds a 
great impeachment and a great struggle within their 
own ranks, would now, at least, under this ex- 
perience of vicissitudes of concord and union among 
themselves, trust power to the Democratic party 
united — no longer divided between combatants iu 
arms and non-combatants in treachery — the united 
Democratic party— and the people said : '' No. [Ap- 
plause.] The party that carried us through the war, 
when you said it was a failure, shall conduct the 
Government now, and you shall submit to it. [Ap- 
plause.] And that you may understand what we 
mean, we put the great captain, who received your 
surrender, iu charge of the Government." [Ap- 
plause.] 

Well, four years went on and they said : "Now, 
our people are fond of a change." [Laughter] So 
you thought when you took up arms in 1 SCO, and 
we showed you that we were not fond of a change. 
We loved our Government as it w.is. We adored our 
country as it was. You tlien proceeded to try and 



SPEECH OF AVIL1.IAM IF. EVARTS. 



21 



inaugurate a change, and enforce it by the most 
telling arguments that the Democratic party ever 
issued [applause]— powder and shot and shell. [Ap- 
plause.] No ; we will keep the Goverumcnt so 
long as the Democratic party holds cut the threat 
and pi-cscnts the array, and avows the principles 
we have resisted up to this time. We will lieep it 
in the hands of the same Captain of our armies 
that we trusted before. [Applause.] 

Well, they said: " Now we have had long peace 
and prosperity." Long peace and prosperity ! 
Think of the emphasis the Democratic party put up- 
on that in the year 1S76. '" We have had long peace 
and prosperity." [Laughter.] Why, do they sup- 
pose that we are a nation of red Indians to whom a 
few yours of peace seem irksome and tiresome, 
and who desire a change. [Applause and laughter.] 
Did they suppose that when the laborers of the 
country, under the desperate tangle of our flnances 
that the rebellion had brought upon us, were work- 
ing upon half time and upon half wages, did they 
think that that was the complete prosperity that 
the laboring people of the Nation should enjoy ? 
We answered: ''No; we will elect a volunteer 
soldier [applause] that never hid behind his 
charming family, but went to the war and 
served to the end, and we will trust him." [Ap- 
plause.] Well, then, they said, " What can we 
do to please these people ? We have ofl'ered them 
a change four times since they trusted Lincoln, 
and they said they would not change at all. Why, 
they must be a people uf fixed principles. [Great 
laughter and applause.] They must be a people that 
understand their own minds, [laugthcr,]aud it must 
be they think they can take care of their own inter- 
ests. What an extraordinary people ! A people, 
they say, wedded to such a continuance in well do- 
ing and with such a sagacious and persistent selec- 
tion of the means of carrying out their purposes is 
on the very brink of despotism. What can save 
them— a people that chooses Republicans for 20 
years ? Why, what can save them from the very 
abyss of military despotism 5 " 

Saved from Military Despotism. 

We thought that when, in 18C.5, we had ended the 
greatest war that modern times have seen, and 
when it waged against free and equal institutions 
by a great military power, we thought that was 
nearer a threat of military despotism than anybody 
had ever dreamed possible in the United States, and 
when we got out of it we thought we were rid of it 
forever, and we are. It is not now by the ranks of 
war and its armaments that they attempt to over- 
power yon. It is by your own frank, generous, con- 
fiding natures, which, like charity, " suflVr long and 
are kind," that they expect us to yield, from an un- 
guardcil people, what no powers in the world could 
lake from the people. 

Well, they said : "Only look at the alternatives 
we offered you. We offered you in l«tJ4 a great 
Union General— Gen. McClellan." Well, he was a 
great Union General, and the united South, inarms, 
not voting, and this desiccated Democracy that at- ] 
tended upon their will at the North said: "What,' 
not take a great Union General? Why, what a 



pledge of fidelity, when you see as plain as day that 
if you only put yourselves under that greut Union 
General, McClellan, the South will lay down their 
arms because they won't have anything to light for, 
they will have gained it." [Applause.] An admi- 
rable suggestion to a people that is fond of peace and 
likes commerce and manufactures aud a great deal 
of peaceful industry and develops ment— a charming 
proposal I The answer was : " This candidate of 
yours is better than his party. He was only un- 
ready, but his party was untrue. But yet the great 
statesman that the afi"ectious of the people had 
twined about, that has written a more glorious page 
in our history than any one since Washington, that 
has made liberty universal, and has dispelled the 
shades of colorandbroken the lines of race, was a good 
enough President for us, though he was not a great 
General of the Union Army, and had not been either 
unready or untrue during the trials." 

Well, in lSi;8, they said: " We offer you a candi- 
date now (always from the North)— Gov. Seymour, 
a candidate better than his party." Well, that we 
agreed was true. But how under heaven thould 
these people think— when ours is a government, not 
of men, not of kings, not of nobles, but of the mass 
of the popular feeling and of public principle that 
is represented in the Presidency— how, I say, should 
they think that a party could commend itself to the 
suffrage by saying its candidate was better than 
they ? What a reason for taking a party, that it is 
worse than the candidate 1 [Laughter.] I don't 
know but our countrymen have eaten of the insane 
root and have gone mad, but I don't think that any 
answers they made to that proposition in the past 
show that they have lost their wits at all. Well, 
now. Gov. Seymour was better than the party. In 
fact, as he has gone on increasing in excellence, I 
think he is better than any party, or, in fact, I don't 
know but he is better than all his fellow- men. 
[Laughter.] That may be. I know he showed a 
very extreme instance of that forgiving spirit and 
humbleness of soul which are said to mark the 
Christian when, clothed with the sword ;;of power 
and speaking in the name of authority, when your 
streets were red with the blood of innocents, he 
spoke to the rioters as his friends. Now, that suits 
a man for some departments of life, but not for the 
command of the Army and Navy of the United 
States. [Great applause.] 

More of Democratic Offers. 

Well, in 1873 they said: "Those people are very 
hard to please. We have ofl'ered them candidates 
that were better than our party ; now we will ofl'er 
them another candidate, a man who don't belong to 
our party at all. [Laughter.] These Northern 
men," they said, " are of rather melodramatic tem- 
perament. They like a show, and what could be a 
finer show than for a great party to take a candidate 
for the Presidency right ofl'from the top of the other 
party. [Laughter] Well," they said, "you must 
admit that that candidate is better than our party." 
[Laughter] They said: " We only presented you 
before a loyal patch upon a moth-eaten garment of 
rebellion and Democr uy." [Laughter.] " Wi-ll." 
we replied, '' we admit that you have not presented 



22 



SPEECH OE WILLIAM M. EVAKTS. 



a patch, bat, you have a:(;tually clothed yourselves 
in auijiher man's garment," and we added : " Our 
notion that the party tliat is in power ought to be in 
power, is the transaction which the American people 
pass upon in their Presidential elections, and we 
will vote for Geu. Grant and not for Horace Greeley." 
[Applanse.] 

"Well," they said, "we have tried everything. 
Now we will have a man after our own heart, a man 
that d(HS not come from the Republican parry, a 
man tliat is not, better than our own party, who can 
tell about t'lese fickle, melodramatic Northereners, 
who arc alway.s running into scrapes for want of 
prudence, thrift and forethought— a people that you 
cannot keep out of the fire or out of :the water." 
And so they presented our distinguished fellow- 
citizen aud my classmate— Samuel J. Tilden.— 
[Laughter.] Well, that was very fine. Now they 
gay : Look at him ! See how we have come back to 
our true colors ! Did you ever see," say they, " a pat- 
tern that was better matched by a patch on it than the 
Democratic party was by Samuel J. Tilden. [Laugh- 
ter.] Now you cannot object to that." " Well," 
the people said : " Let us look at that. Didn't you 
have .in old ticket and a popular suffrage on it then 
20 years ago— 185U ?" (for this Tilden candidacy was 
in IhTG.) Let us look at that. Somehow or other, 
it strikes us that history is repeating itself, and that 
the same voters that voted for Buchanan are to vote 
for Tilden, and we will agree that, so far as we can 
see, in record and in temper, Tilden and Buchanan 
are as like as two peas. [Laughter.] Now, we 
have had that pattern before," the people said, 
" and we will choose Hayes." [Great applause.] 

Well, now, gentlemen, we come along down. At 
their elections the Democratic party has been made 
up of the same constituents— the solid South aud 
the dessicatcd Democracy of the North, [laughter.] 
and the people have passed upon them as such. And 
now they present again the same combination— the 
solid South and the dessicated Democracy of the 
North, neither more nor less— and they have chosen 
a candidate, saying: "Having tired ourselves with 
pleasing you by offering every pattern and patc'.i, wo 
will give you another candidate that is better than 
our party." Indeed, a very eminent public thiuker 
and writer, who seldom speaks within bounds, 
has thought to frighten the people ot the country 
that espoused the Republican candidacy by saying 
that our candidate, God bless him 1 Gen. Garfield, 
[tremcndeous applause and cheering]— this is the 
crushing criticism upon him— is no better than his 
p:;r;y. Well, we thought so, we thought so. We 
thought the party was as good as could be, and that, 
while it could find in its ranks and in its lead many 
men that were worthy of its honors aud its votes, 
we really must be excused from saying that we could 
find any one man that was better than the great 
Republican party. [Applause.] 

Now, this is an extraordinary business. The 
Democratic party, conscious of tlie beam in its 
own eye, and knowing that there is not even a mote 
in the eye of the Republican party, [laughter,] has 
sought to make a balance of the beam in the Demo- 
cratic party against the mote in the Republican 
candidate. Well, that is an extraordinary situa- 
tion 1 A whole party trying, to make a balance 



out of themselves a::ainst what they charge as a 
blemish in our candidate ! They try to make a bal- 
ance against the enormous iniquities unrepented of 
and not yet laid aside; every epaulet, every plume, 
every rufHe, every cartridge-box, every sword-belt, 
every holster still surrounding the Democratic party 
in its relation to our institutions and our prosperity, 
they think to draw attention to what they call a 
mote in our candidate. 

" No Better than his Party." 

Well, gentlemen, when Mr. Black, desiring to 
help his party, said tliat Garfield personally was one 
of the honestest, waruiest-hearted, most guileless 
men that he ever knew ; [applause ;] that he was a 
man of genius, of learning, of eloquence, of popular 
power, he knew wliere to put the only arrow that 
could pierce any harness of our candidate when he 
Slid: " But, good as he is. he cannot in politics and 
in government be any better than his party." 
[Laughter and applause.] Now, Gen. Garfield [ap- 
plause] stands before the American people as a can- 
didate for its highest honors upon a plane of longer 
and more varied experience, of better proved ca- 
pacity, of larger benevolence, of a comprehensive 
mind, and a tender heart for his countrymen's difll- 
culties and dangers and sorrows, than any candidate 
that has been presented to the people of the United 
States by cither party since Henry Clay. 

I had occasion to remark four years ago on the 
superciliousness of our Eastern people here— New- 
York and New-England, and the Atlantic board— 
of taking it for granted that because the candidate 
lifted up on the shoulders of the great people of the 
West was not as familiar to our observation aud as 
clear in our estimate as one of our great men, of as- 
suming that he was not so fit as he should be, and vot- 
ing in the dark against him as so many did against 
President Hayes. But now that he has stood in the 
light for four years; now that his countrymen and 
the public men of Europe have estimated his public 
services, and when our people feel the full rush of 
honesty, of fidelity, which brought prosperity in the 
very finger-end-* of every man in the land, they be- 
t;in to think that if they had known President 
Hayes as well four years ago as they do now, he 
would have had a larger majority. [Great applause 
and cries of " That's so."] We had the same talk 
about him then that they would like to engage you 
in now about Gen. Garfield. They had the same 
talk about him then, I say, that he seemed to be a 
good man, but they did not know exactly by what 
counsels and advisers he would be surrounded. 
They did not know who was to lead him, and who 
was to push him, and who was to guide him ; and 
as they saw various adventurers, leaders of the 
party, that looked as if they would like to have a 
large share in the Government, some of whom they 
liked, and some of who.u they did not like, wliy, 
people said, they would vote in the dark until they 
knew who was going to manage hiui. Notliing has 
managed him but love of country, an upright na- 
ture, a sincerity in the homely virtues of American 
common life that will long be remembered in the 
aftections of the men aud women of the United 
Stales. [Applause.] 



SPEECH OF "WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 



23 



Now, people begin to say — Democrats — " Oli ! If 
your party had only re-nominated President Hayes, 
why, wo could not have stood against him ; he has 
the hearts of the people. But as for Garfield, we 
don't feci so sure." In other words, they feel about 
Garfield now as they felt about President Hayes four 
years ago. And four years hence, they will feel 
about Garfield as they feel about President Hayes 
now. [Great applause.] They used to be, in follow- 
ing the Republican party and adopting its credits as 
belonging to themselves, at a safe marching distance 
of about 12 or 8 years behind them, but now they are 
beginning to crowd us, for they are only four years 
behind. If they will only keep on and study our 
step and learn our music, it may bring them abreast 
of us some time or other. [Laughter.] 

Only two " Superbs " in History. 

Well now, having discussed Gen. Garfield, who is 
not better than his party, let us look at Gen. Han- 
cock, who is better than his party. [Laughter.] Gen. 
Hancock is a great and faithful General of the armies 
of the United States. [Applause mingled with hisses.] 
He was a faithful General in the war, and in his place 
in the Army he has been a faithful General since, 
and no Kepublican seeks either to obscure or belittle 
his claims upon his countrymen. But when General 
Hancock is sought to be the "make-way" to bring 
up the party whose candidate he is to the standard of 
a party like ours, that has seen a Lincoln, [applause,] 
a Grant, [applause,] and a Hayes, [renewed ap- 
plause,] he has got to have a great deal more avoir- 
dupois to weigh us down. [Laughter.] 

What do these people think a change of party gov- 
ernment means ? Is it, as some of these palaverers 
would ha\c us suppose, a toss of a copper or wave of 
a hand, and all is over ? Is that so ? Is that what a 
change of party means ? What a change of parties 
in a great nation like this means ? What a change of 
parties from the one that preserved the country to 
the other that attacked it— is that all that it means ? 
Does it mean nothing to the poor freedmen of the 
South whether, all else being against them, the Fed- 
eral Executive is to be against them too ? Does it 
mean nothing to the loyal people of the country, to 
the heroes of your fights, to the leaders in your 
Cabinets, and to the memories of the great states- 
men that have passed away, whether the American 
people are to put that party and those memories and 
those living statesmen to an open shame ; and 
whether they are to exalt over their heads the party 
that, in the name of the people and with the people's 
power, we have resisted until we saved the country 
from war and preserved it from disasters of peace ? 
I tell you, gentlemen, that the relations of a people 
to their public men and of the public men to the peo- 
ple are reciprocal ; and when a nation turns its back 
in prosperity upon those who never turned their 
backs, in the field or in the Cabinet, against the ene- 
niies of the coinitry, the people has gone over to the 
Bide of the enemies of the country. [Applause.] 
Manners change at different ages, but this affair of a 
transfer of power from one party to another diametri- 
cally its opposite is, with a proper allowance for the 
difference of manners and the ameliorations of life, 
pretty much the same thing. And, as I remember 
■fout one great character in history that received from 



his countrymen the surname of " The Superb " — 
only one "Tarquinius Superbus," of Komc— I 
thought I would see whether history that had re- 
peated itself herewith this magnificent title would 
not find some other traits of resemblance in the trans- 
actions of Tarquinius's government. 

The King of Rome that preceded Tarquinius had 
made a change in the Roman Constitution in favor of 
popular rights. He had endowed with a share in the 
suffrage and in the commonwealth the plebeians, and 
it was a thorn in the side of the haughty classes that 
domineered over them that the poorplebeums should 
be trusted with the suffrage. Now, I think that 
Lincoln did something of that liind for the poor 
plebeians of the South. [Applause.] I think the 
Republican party has done, not only something, but 
all that its powers thus far have permitted it to do, 
to establish those popular rights — to be sure only in 
the hands of the plebeians. Tarquin came forward 
and slew TuUius, and the great reformers that repre- 
sented the people died by the hand of the assassin, 
and then, when he liad thus got power, he at once 
took away from the very plebeians every vestige of 
their rights. He put to death all Senators that had 
voted for it. He took into his hands the whole ad- 
ministration of justice, and he slew or exiled all that 
were obno.xious to his will. Well, gentlemen, let me 
say for the Roman people that Tarquinius Superbus 
was the last king that ever sat upon the throne in 
Rome, [applause,] and until the time that Cassius 
and Brutus completed the assassination of Cicsar — 
down to that time there had always been a Brutus 
that would brave the eternal devils to be King. Now, 
as I say, manners have changed. Three hundred 
years ago, in England, they sent their foreign IMinis- 
ters to the tower, and beheaded their Ai-chbishops. 
But the principle of human nature which makes the 
gulf so wide between the principles of Servius Tullius 
and Tarquinius Superbus, and so wide the gulf be- 
tween the principles of Abraham Lincoln and the 
party of Gen. Hancock, and change of parties do not 
pass like a summer dream. No, it is to be from our 
hearts, if at all, and, thank God, it is to be only if we 
have the will to allow it. [Applau.se.] 

Taking up Mr. English. 

Now, gentlemen, we have candidates also called 
Vice-Presidents, and I take Mr. English first. I have 
never seen any very open or public avowal of whj' the 
Democrats nominated Mr. English. He was not in 
our minds at all. I do not know that his countrymen 
were turning him over among the men that they 
thought tlio Democrats could nominate. It will 
not do to put it wholly upon the fact that he is a 
rich banker, and so we look at the speeches he 
has made in Congress twenty years ago, when 
they talked about'abolitionists and about the blacks 
and about the plebeians in the fashion that the 
old Democrat used to talk about our notions of be- 
friending the people. There did not seem to be a 
reason for that, and I leave it to Ids neighbors, who 
have expressed their minds about him, whether tlu^re 
is any thing in that large liberality of personal char- 
acter which makes a man popular in spite of the 
badness of his political principles. I do not under- 
stand that there is a very large claim on that score. 
I do observe in his letter of acceptance that he seems 



24 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 



to be of a very sympathetic nature — feels for the suf- 
ferings of others — because I observe that he ox- 
presses great interest in tlie toiling niillions of his 
countrymen. Well, these are all trilling matters, 
perhaps, but yet they do show whether a party is 
sincere or not ; and when I saw that Mr. Engli.¥h had 
this yearning of heart for the toiling millions of his 
countrymen, I could not but think of a story that our 
excdlcnt judge. Judge Brady, is fond of telluig at 
the expense of our profession — for there is one good 
thing about us lawyers, that we do repeat all the 
jokes against ourselves that we can pick up. Well, 
a young man v/ho had lo.«t his father, and had a 
small estate of $50 from a solvent debtor that yet he 
needed to collect by law, waited upon a lawyer in the 
village who, he knew, was a friend of his father, and 
asked him to collect it. The lawyer received him as 
only a lawyer knows how to receive a client, [laugh- 
ter,] and admitted frankly that he did know his 
father, that he loved him as a father, and nothing 
would give him greater pleasure than to collect that 
little bill. So, when the process had brought in the 
money, word was sent to the young man that the 
debt had been collected, and he would be glad to pay 
it to him, deducting the costs, and so the lawyer 
handed out to the young man, who was full of grati- 
tude, $15 out of the $50, at which he seemed a little 
da;a'd in counting it, and the lawyer said, "Why, is 
it not all right ; are not the $15 there ?" " Oh, yes," 
says the young man, "there are $15; I was only 
thinking how lucky it was for me that you didn't 
know my grandfather." [Great laughter.] And I 
could not help thinking how lucky it was for these 
toiling millions of our countrymen that only a few 
thousand of them were within the immediate friend- 
ship of Mr. English. [Applause and laughter.] 

And now Gen. Arthur, [applause,] our townsman 
and our friend, is proposed to make one more in 
the long roll of Vice-Presidents that Kcw-York has 
given to the Nation. Everybody knows of Gen. 
Arthur that he never sought an honor, but took 
only such as came to him by the free will of his 
fellow-citizens ; everybody knows that in the lead 
of the great administrations of our political affairs, 
he has been trusted and honored, and the people of 
the United States accept this candidacy from this, 
our great State and City, and, knowing of his charac- 
ter and position, intend to make his term the ninth 
Presidential term that has been filled by Vice-Presi- 
dents from the State of New- York. 

The Confidence in Republi- 
canism.. 

Now, gentlemen, let us see what are the great 
questions before the people. In the first place, let 
me submit to your intelligence that the people of the 
United States do not need to be asked to reconsider 
any of the decisions that they matie in 1804, or in 
18C8, or in 187i!, or in 1876. Those have passed into 
the judgment of their countrymen, and the people 
have said that the Republican party should keep 
power, notwithstanding any thing that could be 
urged, with reason or without, by hypercriticism or 
by honest discontent, that the party, the great party 
and its great and honest leaders, should bo kept in 
power at all those terms. Now, if I am right in this, 



what ought always to be the great question for a peo- 
ple practical in their tastes and interested in their 
prosperity is, what shall we say of the party as it has 
administered the Government for the past four years? 
[Applause.] What shall we say of the Democratic 
party as it has exhibited itself in the last four years? 
Is it wise, is it prudent, is it for our advantage that 
the Government should run on tor four years more 
in the conduct of that party that has guided it four 
years, and in the same way that it has been guided 
four years? lias the Democratic party, that we con- 
demned during all these previous stages at which our 
judgment has been called for, has it, in the last four 
years, helped our credit, helped our peace, helped our 
public faith, helped our prosperity? We do not need 
to be told that we live under the Government of a 
good God. That we knew, even when the Democrats 
were racking our hearts with sorrow, and rifling our 
coffers of wealth. It was not a good God that we 
turned upon and cursed. It ^\as the Democratic 
party that A\'e turned upon and cursed and defeated, 
and when this general and universal Providence, pro- 
tecting us all through a great party, has, in what be- 
longs to Government, in what belongs to prudence, 
in what belongs to honesty, in what belongs to 
human wisdom, spread the golden mantle of peace 
over the whole country, filled our granaries and our 
warehouses, lit up our forges, set awhirling all our 
spindles, and asked even for more means to employ 
the industry of this people, this people are not to be 
turned aside by saying that it is all a good Providence 
that did that. 

Well, to bring it down a little more concisely in 
this Democratic devoutness, it seems that we have 
been living under a financial theocracj' for the last 
eight years, and that John Sherman [applause] was 
favored by Providence as the best man to carry out 
the purposes of the Divine wisdom. Well, Mr. 
Bayard thinks that that, doubtless, was a mistake on 
the part of Providence, for he ought to have been the 
prophet under this theocracy. Well, gentlemen, if 
the Republican party has carried on the Government 
thus prosperously and to these results by the special 
favor of Providence, did you ever hear of a more 
illogical reason to a people than that they should turn 
them out because Providence was on their side? Do 
the Democrats expect to get along against Providence 
or without Providence? 



The Republican Party's Work. 

But away with these frivolities. No doubt Provi- 
dence causes His sun to shine upon the evil aiul the 
good, and his rain to fall upon the just and the un- 
just ; but, nevertheless, the farms ol the drunkard 
and the sluggard do not show such a smile of Provi- 
dence as the farms of the thrifty and the laborious 
and the temperate. Did not this sunshine and rain 
fall upon the wide areas of agriculture when our corn 
was used to burn for fuel, because confidence w:;s 
destroyed in the country and it could not be moved 
to the hungry demands of Europe ? But what mo\cs 
the crops ? Is it the rail-roads and the steamships ? 
Why, the iron tracks and the trackless paths of the 
ocean were as open at those times as at these. Vriiy 
is it that there was no capital, that there was no 
enterprise ? Why, there was capital and there was 



SPEECH OF AVILMAM M. EVA UTS, 



25 



enterprise, but the unextricated snarl of our finances, 
brought about by the war and perpetuated by Demo- 
cratic obstructions in peace, had frightened capital, 
and it had hidden itself in the 6 percent, bonds of the 
rnitcd States. And then, when following in the 
same path with Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of the 
Treasury, we set our faces toward John Sherman— 
favored by his countrymen and favored by Provi- 
dence as well, no doubt— when he carried through 
that magnificent financial march to the broad sea of 
prosperity, which rivals in the fame and in the grati- 
tude of his countrymen that military march that the 
great Captain, Sherman, took to the sea, [Applause.] 
then he unbound capital and enterprise, then he dis- 
lodged it from its safe shelter inuler the C per cent, 
bonds and reduced it to the scanty pittance of 4 per 
cent., and drove it out into the activities of com- 
merce, and the risks of manufactures. And then you 
had the circle completed as distinctly by this final 
touch of the human prudence, sagacity, fidelity, and 
courage of the Republican party, just as distinctly as 
the natural philosopher completes the circuit of the 
electric current that surrounds the world. 

Now, I would like to know how much the Demo- 
cratic party did to help Providence out of its difti- 
ci;!ties. [Laughter.] I am astonished at this new 
cle'.:ient in party politics. Why, everybody knows 
that the conflicts in England and in this country are 
1 nsed upon this proposition — that the party in power 
is to be blamed for its faults, its errors and even its 
misfortunes, and that it is to receive the honor of its 
fidelity, of its wisdom, of its prosperity. [Applause.] 
And this is the first time that statesmen who valued 
their public character have gone through the land 
prating against a party's right to the honor of the 
things that it had done. Let them say that they will 
do better— let them say that they will do better 
against Providence than we liave done with it. Let 
the country trust them if they will. 

Looking at Hancock's Letters. 

But they say, that Gen. Hancock, who is better 
than his party, has ahvaj's been an excellent friend 
of the country and its prosperity and faith. Well, 
now, Mhen a man is a candidate for the Presidency 
and writes letters, everybody knows that they come 
substantially from the bottom of his heart. [Laugh- 
ter.] That is settled. If there is anything that the 
country can rely upon as true in purpose and in fact, 
it is a candidate's letters. That we have always 
known. But, nevertheless, letters are not exactly 
transactions. When Admiral Coffin, who lived in 
Cape Cod as a child, had adhered to the Britsh 
Crown, and risen to a great rank in the Navy, came 
over to visit this country about 50 years ago, and 
renew his associations with his people and the 
familiar scenes of his boyhood, he told his officers 
that when they got to Cape Cod they would see 
lobsters that would make them open their eyes— that 
they would see lobsters that weighed 25 pounds. The 
rules of the quarter-deck do not peiTuit you to con- 
trauict an Admiral flatly, but still some distrust was 
shown on the faces of those Lieutenants and 
Captains. "Well," he says, " if you doubt it, I will 
make you a bet that when we get to Cape Cod I will 
show you lobsters that weigh 25 jjounds." And the 
bet was made, under this permission of the Admiral. 



And when they got there the Admiral scoured the 
Cape, but he did not find any lobsters that weighed 
25 i)ounds. So he said, " Well, they don't happen to 
be here just now, but I will get the alfidaviyj of the 
old fishermen," and he brought a pile of affidavits, 
tliat when they were fishermen, in early times, 
lobsters that weighed 25 pounds were as common as 
huckleberries are on the Cape. Then it was left to 
an umpire to decide which had lost or won the bet. 
And this concise judgment was given by the umpire, 
which would entitle him to a seat on the Supreme 
Court of the L^nited States if everything in his life 
comported with it. His decision was that "Affida- 
vits are not lobsters." [Laughter.] Now, if any 
one doubted that, they could try to eat an affidavit 
from any source whatever. People are said some- 
times to swallow their oaths, and these written de- 
positions are not very savory food. 

Now, candidates' letters are not the decrees of a 
Democratic caucus, much less the acts of Congress of 
the United States. If anybody thinks they are, and 
elects Gen. Hancock in that view, he will have to 
come back to that sober, common-place judgment, 
that candidates' letters are not acts of Congress. 
Now, Gen. Hancock prides himself, and justly, upon 
having been a consistent and a genuine and earnest 
Democrat all his life. He was so in 1864. I have 
never heard that he "kicked," as the phrase was, 
against the platform at Chicago of the Democratic 
party. I never heard that he did, and I do not now 
find that it was made a matter of boast then. 

Now, let us look at this party of ours, that has a 
candidate no better than itself, and the Democratic 
party, with their candidate that ujjheld its platform 
then, and let us see how they compare. It is short 
reading. The Republicans say in 1SG4 : "We ap- 
prove the determination of the Government not to 
compromise with the rebels or to offer them any 
terms of peace except such as may be based upon an 
unconditional surrender of their hostiIity,_and a re- 
turn to their just allegiance to the Constitution and 
laws of the United States, and we call on the Govern- 
ment to maintain this position, and to prosecute the 
war with the utmost possible vigor to the complete 
suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon the 
self-sacrificing patriotism, the heroic valor, and the 
undying devotion of the American people to the 
country and its free institutions." [Applause.] I 
would like to see the Republican now that will not 
follow his party in that sublime faith through the 
next election in November. [Applause.] What did 
the Democratic party say at that very time on this 
very point ? "' That this convention does explicitly 
declare as the sense of the American people, that 
after four years of failure to restore the LTnion by the 
experiment of war, justice, humanity, liberty, and the 
public welfare demand that immediate efforts be 
made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an 
ultimate convention of the States or other peaceable 
means, to the end that at the earliest jjracticable mo- 
ment peace may be restored on the federal union of 
the States." Which was right— the arrogant as- 
sumption of the Democrats to speak the deliberate 
sense of the American people, or the humble faith, in 
the dark liour and in the shadow of the valley, of the 
Republican party, that they could rely on the patriot- 
ism, the courage, and the undying devotion of the 



26 



SPEECH OF "WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 



American people to their country and its free institu- 
tions ? [Applause.] Now, I think I would rattier 
have a candidate who is not better than that Repub- 
lican fiarty than a candidate who is a good deal better 
than that Democratic party. 

But in 1SC8 Gen. Hancock was actively enlisted in 
the maintenance of the principles then avowed by 
the Democratic party. He was a candidate before 
the convention, and received, I think, 144 votes— I 
will not deprive him of anything— I think 144J^ votes. 
[Laughter.] So, there he is, with his colors nailed to 
the flag-stafE. Now, nothing remained but this war. 
They had found out that the American people were 
attached to their institutions. But there we were, 
M-ith this load of debt, with this embarrassment in 
the burden of taxation, with a people still tugging 
and sweating under the burdens that the Democratic 
party had laid on it. And now, they say, is a time to 
catch these people in despair. There are no trumpets 
now, there are no drums, there are no cannon — none 
of the pomp and circumstance of war to arouse and 
inflame them. It is the painful, slow drudgery of 
labor to pay taxes, and of capital to pay tribute to 
the Government. 

The Parties' Records Compared, 

Now, we will see how the two parties stand, and 
how the party that Garfield represents stands by the 
side of, and in comparison with, the Democratic 
party. I will read of the Democratic party first : 
" 1868 : The bonded debt shall be paid in greenbacks. 
[Laughter.] Government bonds and all public se- 
curities to be taxed equally with all other property." 
There is the faith of the Nation sacrificed at once. 
It then arraigns the Republican party "for the un- 
paralleled oppression and tyranny that have marked 
its career." [Laughter.] Now, this is the smooth- 
spoken Gen. Hancock, who thinks that the Republi- 
can party will not make much of a change if it falls 
into line behind him. This is the party— our party— 
that he speaks of as displaying the "unparalleled 
oppression and tyranny that have marked our career 
— your career and my career ! Let us vote for Han- 
cock 1 [Laughter.] Again, it announces " that 
should the Republican party succeed in November 
next, and inaugurate its President, we will meet as a 
subjugated and conquered people, amid the ruins of 
liberty and the fragments of the Constitution !" 
[Laughter.] Well, I would be very glad to meet 
Gen. Hancock, as I often have done, almost any- 
where. But amid the ruins of liberty and the frag- 
ments of the Constitution I would say that I would 
not recognize him at all. [Laughter.] Then they 
"regard the reconstruction acts of Congress as 
usurpations " and " as unconstitutional, revolution- 
ary and void," and yet we are told everything is 
going on " smoothly "— " in n groove "—in a Repub- 
lican groove, with only a change of cars and of 
brakemen, and of engineers, and of conductors, and 
of Superintendent. [Laughter.] The whole fabric— 
that splendid fabric— of energy, of courage, of faith, 
by which the wisdom of the Republicans has drawn 
the nation out of the horrid, out of the ruinous con- 
tacts and destruction of war, and set them on the 
plane of comparative peace and on the plane of law 
—all that "usurpation," " unconstitutional, revolu- 
tionary, and void !" [Applause.] 



What did we say when we were struggling to pay 
this debt? for I think it must be admitted that the 
North was to pay, and is to pay, more of that debt 
than the South. We did not try to "scale it ;" we 
did not try to tax it. What did we do? We speak 
our mind pretty well. Our platform denounced all 
forms of repudiation as a national crime. [Great ap- 
plause.] There is no uncertain sound in that, is 
there? We did not stop to see whether we could 
commit a crime and escape punishment in this world 
or at the hands of Providence. It was enough for us 
to know that it was a crime. (Reading:) "And the 
national honor requires the paying of the public 
debt in the uttermost good faith to all creditors at 
home and abroad," not onl}' according to the letter, 
but the spirit of the law under which it was con- 
tracted. [Applause.] Lord Coke says, "the letter 
killeth, but the spirit makcth a lie." And if 
there was any doubt in the minds of our creditors, 
whether they were the poor widows and orphans in 
our land, or the Rothschilds and rich bankers of 
London, that we would pay a debt that was so 
sacredly contracted to save all that is worth having 
in this world, according to the spirit as well as the 
letter, such a declaration would set them at rest. 
[Applause.] 

Now, let ns see the wisdom of the other side. 
They said, " pay your debt in greenbacks ; tax your 
Government securities." We said that the best 
policy to diminish our bitrden of debt is so to im- 
prove our credit that capitalists will seek to loan ns 
money at lower rates of interest than we now pay, 
and must continue to pay so long as repudiation, 
partial or total, open or covert, is threatened or sus- 
pected. [Applause.] Now, there are two ways of 
getting rid of debt. Which is tlie true mother of 
this child of the Nation — the public credit — that bold- 
faced jade, the Democratic party, that would h.'-.ve 
cut it in half and left it to peri.sh, or tliat nursing 
mother, the Republican party, that sought to cherish 
and shelter its weakness until it should outgrow it, 
and become, as it is to-day, the glory and strength of 
the American people. [Applause.] I am happy to 
say, Mr. Chairman, that those sentiments of the Re- 
publican party were uttered ^^•hen you were at the 
head of the finances of the nation. [Applause.] 

I am not going to read the later platforms, for they 
are fresh in your minds. In 1876 they said that the 
resumption of specie payments was impossible, and 
would ruin ns. Well, as the client said to the lawyer, 
when he asked him if the magistrate could put him in 
prison for such and such and such cause, " No," said 
the lawyer, "he cannot." "But," said the client, 
"he has ; I am in prison." [Laughter.] We did re- 
sume specie payments. Did it ruin us? Well, gen- 
tlemen. Napoleon used to say that, in the affairs of 
war, he had noticed that Providence favored the 
heaviest battalion, and I think that, in the affairs of 
peace. Providence favors courage, fidelity and faith 
in the moral government of the world. [Applause.] 

The Right of Suffrage. 

There are two things that underlie the whole f ,".bric 
of political society, its interest and its sentimeut. 
One is the suffrage, which is the basis of it nil. 
Another is the largeness and integrity of our 



SrEECH OF AVILLIAM 51. EVAET9. 



27 



country, which this people, for some reason or other, 
in spite of r.U t'.ie inculcation of Southern dogmas, 
are insisting upon thinking is greater than anj' of its 
parts. Our people know what the elements and traits 
of fr^'c suffrage arc, and ha^■e resented any attack 
upon it in any form. Mliat is the education of this 
people if it be not to value the liberties of others as 
well as their own? I never knew a King or a noble 
or priest or rich man that did not value his liberty, 
and I think some of them were willing even to carry 
their liberties to the extent of license, as we say. 
But the question is, whether the strong value the 
liberties of the weak. The question is, whether the 
proud value the liberties of the humble. The ques- 
tion is, whether the man of great intellect, of great 
learning, values the liberties of the ignorant. And 
when a great section of this country talks about 
suffrage as an inviolable right, and then, with all its 
strength, all its pride, all its learning, ilaunts itself 
before this country, boastful that it can intimidate 
the weak and can deceive the ignorant, I don't think 
much of their love of liberty, [applause,] except in 
the sense that Kings and nobles love liberty— for its 
license— at the expense of the poor, the humble, the 
ignorant and the weak. That is an old stage of poli- 
tics in this world, but since the Fourth day of July, 
1776, it has not been the politics of the American 
people, [applause,] and I don't think it will be next 
November. 

Let us see how much the platforms preach, and, 
at the hustings, the orator's palaver about the suf- 
frage. The platform of the Democratic party speaks 
of it as the right preservative of all rights, and im- 
mediately proceeds to take it away from the blacks. 
Now, if that right is preservative of all rights, and 
you take it away from the blacks, cunning as you 
are, you take away their rights. Now, General Han- 
cock says, in the admirable letter of acceptance, of 
which his party is so proud, that a free ballot, a full 
vote, and an honest count is what the people of the 
United States want. [Applause.] Now, here is a 
little table that has been used by an accomplished 
orator throughout the western part of this country, 
in which he gives the following result of a free ballot, 
a full vote, and a fan- count in 18~G : 

Hayes. Tllden. 

Green County, Ala 2 408 

"\A''a]ton County, Ga., 2 1,393 

Wilkes County, Ga., 2 1,139 

East Feliciana, La., none. 1,736 

LawTence County, Miss., 2 2,073 

Tallahatchie County, Miss., 1 1,144 

Yazoo County, Miss., 2 3,672 

Brown County, Texas, 1 2,525 

Eastland County, Texas, 3 1,787 

Hidalgo County, Texa." 4 1 ,629 

Buchanan County, Va., 2 1,330 

Now, you see what the Democratic protection of 
the right of suffrage, preservative of all rights, and 
a free ballot, a full vote, and a fair count is. [Ap 
plause.] Here are 11 counties in 6 different Southern 
States that h.ave produced in the aggregate 21 votes 
for Hayes and 16 odd thousand for TiUlcn. [Laugh 
ter.] Now, I think th:;t, under a candidate that is 
better than his party, and with this printing in tlic 
platform, and this palaver ct the hustings, the Re 



publican vote in these 11 counties will jn-obably be 
doubled from 21 to 43. [Applause.] But as the 
Democrats like to be included in all this tal'c about 
a free ballot, a full vote, and a fair count, I suppose 
their aggregate will rise from 16,000 to 32,000. 

Well, gentlemen, I don't know what the .\inerican 
people are made of. I don't know whether they like 
tills palaver. I don't think it is creditable to a can- 
didate that ia better than his party, to write such 
contemptuous imitation of principles as that. I 
don't think it is creditable to a party, even though it 
is worse than a candidate, to put forth such a solemn 
proposition of its love of that suffrage, " preserva- 
tive of our rights." The only equal for this dis- 
parity between principles and practice that I have 
ever heard of, was that of the man who broke his 
wife's head with a motto that hung in a frame at 
their bedside, " God bless our home." [.\pplause.] 

Now, as I say, loving tiie suffrage, we resent any 
interference with it. Now, this Democratic party 
says to us, " Oh, don't mind them ; they are far off ; 
tiiey are not of your race ; they are ignorant ; they 
are feeble. Don't distress yourselves about this in- 
jury of the poor blacks in the distant jiarts of the 
country ; that is our State rights, and ;ve mean to 
exercise it." But when American liberty accuses the 
Democratic party of having made a deadly assault 
upon the first foundation right of liberty and equality, 
the Democratic party undertakes to reply : " When 
have we made such an assault ? Why, we liavc 
prophesied under the name of liberty, and under the 
name of liberty we have cast out Republican devils." 
The answer is, " Inasmuch as ye have done it to 
the least of these poor disciples of liberty at its feet, 
ye have done it unto mc," [great applause.] and in 
the scales of justice, and in the eye and in the bal- 
ance of the Divine scrutiny this is a law of the moral 
government of the world, and if this people looks 
with patience on this robbery of the suffrage from 
these poor freemen, it won't be long before we will 
have to debate what we shall do to protect the suf- 
frage of these poor plebeians that Tarquin the 
Superb robs of their fr.inchises. 

The Government as it was. 

As we then next value the gi-eat country that we 
love, as we have preserved its Constitution unviolated, 
and this territory unmutilated, we are not afraid to 
meet and encounter any charges that politics will 
bring against us. And we are, as lovers of the Union, 
as lovers of the union of States, intelligent as to 
what that means. Why, it used to be enough that 
we were always in favor of the union of the States 
as Jackson was, as all Republicans ever have been. 
But when it came to be a matter of judicial scnitiny. 
the Supreme Court— in the hands, I am glad to say, 
of the principles of the Union, the Republican p.".rty 
—as lovers of the Constitution, and lovers of liberty 
and the Union, spoke of it as "an indissoluble Union 
of indestructible States."' And that is Republican 
doctrine. Now, Democrats have got it up, and are 
crying it up and down the streets as if it was Demo- 
cratic doctrine of an indissoluble Union of indestiiic- 
tible States. 

What was the Democratic doctrine in 1860 ? What 
was it up to the end of the war ? What, in equal 



28 



SPEECH OF "WILT.IAM M. EVARTS. 



stress, will it be again ? It is of a dissoluble union 
of destructible States. Now, tliat is the dififerenco 
between Republicans and Democrats. Gentlemen, 
we must consider, as I have said, the Democracy do 
not criticize trouble in your affairs, as during the 
four years the Government has h'jcn administered 
what do they call attention to f Is it we that go back 
into the past ? No, it is they ; it is they that go bad; 
into the past. Their whole proposition, their whole 
discussion is made up of the passions of the past, of 
the interests of restoration, and they wish, with a 
party made up in the same way, to bring back the 
Government as it stood in 1856, over the head of the 
party that drove them from that Government and has 
kept them out ever since. 

Well, now, these Democrats are very devout. 
Senator Hill said: "Why will you keep up these 
animosities ? Why don't you let us into the Govern- 
ment ? If you don't think we are fit for it, why just 
try us ; just try us," with about the same easy air 
with which a school-boy in the country tries to wheedle 
a kiss out of a pouting beauty. "Just for once," 
does he say. [Laugliter.j Senator Hill says, " It is 
only for four years." Well, in an era of good feeling, 
after an e.xtreme effort of compromise on the part of 
the North in 1852, we chose Pierce, a Northern states- 
man—better than his party— and only four years— 
and just for once ! [Laughter.] And how he did 
tear the face, tlie honor, the prosperity of this country 
to tatters— all in four years— by the repeal of the 
Missouri compromise ! And we tried another kiss 
from the Democratic party in Mr. Buchanan— and 
just for four years— and just for once— and how he 
did rack and ruin tliis country only in four years ; 
And now for the 20 years, by faith in God and faith 
in the people, we have made tlie country larger, more 
populous, richer, more powerful than it was before, 
and now they want us to put it back, just for once, 
just for four years. [Applause.] 

Well, I think that when the people of this country 
make a partnership between these leaders and oar 
affairs they had better think a little of that st^ry of 
the partnership that was made between a somewhat 
experienced practical merchant and a capitalist \\ho 
had a good deal of property and not much sagacity 
"Why," says his friend to this experienied trader, 
"You have made a new partnership, I understand." 
"Yes, I have, with Mr. Jones." " Well, what docs 
he put in 5" "He puts in §100,000, and I put in the 
experience." "Well, how long is this to last J" 
"Oh 1 only for four years, and then I will have the 
5100.000, and he the experience." [Great laughter 
and applause.] Now, these leaders have had a great 
deal of experience, and we have a great deal of 
money. But even at the end of four years we would 
not like to find that we had no money, although \\c 
had had some experience. But what good would ex- 
perience do ? Have you not had the experience of 
Pierce, of Buchanan, of flagrant war, of treachery to 
the public faith, of ruin of credit, and obstruction 
everywhere ? What do they think of us ? That we 
are light headed to the pitch of lunacy, or rash to the 
point of self destruction ? Is that the character of 
this sober American people ? Is that the character of 
the New-Englanders, of the New-Yorkcra, of the 
Pennsylvanians, of tlie great West ? Well, Novem- 
ber will tell the story. It is as bold as I put it to you. 



I said four years ago that this people did not need 
another eye-opener in one generation. But these ex- 
perienced Southerners think that we are ready for 
another eye-opener that will last us fifteen years 
more. 

The Devout Democrats. 

But these gentlemen are very devout. Senator 
Hill, I notice, without having the fear of the example 
of the Pharisees before his eyes, before an immense 
crowd of his fellow-citizens, publicly gave thanks to 
the "God of his fathers" that slavery had been 
destroyed. Well, the solid South did not destroy 
slavery, did they ? The desiccated Democratic party 
of the North did not destroy slavery, did they ? It 
was the Kepnblican party that destroyed slavery. 
And thus far all that Senator Hill has found occasion 
Iiublicly to thank God for, is something that tlie 
Republican p.arty did. [Laughter and applause.] 
Senator Bayard says, in 18S0, in a public speech in 
Brooklyn, that the war to save the Union has been a 
success, and, for one, he thanks God for it. Well, it 
was not the solid South that made the war a success, 
nor the desiccated Democratic party of the North. 
It is the Republican party that made the war a suc- 
cess. [Applause.] And Senator Bayard thanks God 
that this was done. Well, these great statesmen are 
right in being devout, are right in assuming the 
humility of David in one of his most celebrated 
Psalms— Xort nobis rfowiftfi- "Not unto us, O Lord, 
but unto Thee be all the praise." [Laughter and 
applause.] 

Well, gentlemen, we do abhor sectionalism. The 
Union men of this country, the great body of the 
people in this country, have always abhorred section- 
alism. They abhorred it before the war. They ab- 
horred it in the war. They abhorred it during recon- 
struction. They abhor it now. [-\pplause.] And, 
thank God, they have got all the sectionalism now in 
front, and in the solid South. [Applause.] The sec- 
tionalism of the South has always been eager, joyous, 
aggressive, the pride and staple of their politics : with 
the North slow, sad, reluctant, defensive, never with 
a sword to attack, nothing but a shield to defend. We 
have defended the Union against sectionalism in 
arms. We have protected the Constitution against 
sectionalism in peace, and we will save the Govern- 
ment. [Great applause.] We will save the Government 
from passing into the hands of sectionalism next No- 
vember, and four years hence, and eight years hence, 
and twelve years hence, and so on during the long roll 
of the history of the American people. [Applause.] 

Keeping Faith With the 
Blacks. 

Let us, then, understand that the freedom of suf- 
frage to the black means the freedom of the suffrage 
to the white. I have not yet found anywhere, in any 
system of ethics or of morality, in any doctrine of re- 
ligion, of any distinction between colors or race as to 
human rights. I have known them violated. I have 
kno\\Ti them trampled on, and I have known them 
re-asserted. I do not believe that a great party, and 
a noble party, that has Iceptits faith that it would pre- 
serve the Union, that it would preserve the Constitu- 
tion, that it would pay its debts, that it would redeem 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 



29 



its greenbacks— I do not believe tliat it will break the 
faitu It has pledged to the poor and the defenceless, 
because they arc poor and defenceless. [Applause.] 
The Democratic party may pass on the other side 
these poor sufferers of the South ; but the Republican 
party means to cheer with the wine of its protection 
and to soothe with the oil of its consolation these 
poor neighbors of ours that lie wounded and pillaged 
at our feet. [Applause.] 

The Dignity of Labor. 

There is another great interest of free government 
in American society — I mean the dignity of labor. 
We have undertaken on this continent of ours to build 
up a fabric of politics in which every laboring man 
had the same share, every ignorant man had the same 
share, every feeble man had the same share, inpoliti 
cal power with the rich and the strong and the learn- 
ed. And that system we mean to maintain ; and in 
order to maintain a system and dignity of labor which 
is known nowhere else in the world, and has never 
been known anywhere in the world till here and 
now, we mean to protect the wages of our workmen 
from competition with the pauper systems of Europe. 
[Applause.] Upon what a narrow and stupid basis 
do they discuss this American system of industry ! 
They speak of it as if it were protection of the mill- 
owners, of the mine-owners, of the proprietors and 
managers of furnaces and of railroads and of ships. 
^^'hy, of course, they have their share in the workings 
of industry, but the object of it all, and the political 
reason of it all is that we mean to protect our wages 
from being beaten down by the peasantry or the la- 
borers of foreign couuti'ies, whose dignity, whose man- 
hood, whose equality is not preserved, or even that 
of any other systems of politics. [Applause.] That 
is what our system of wages and our barrier mean — 
the hands that we will protect— that dignity from be- 
ing broken down. It is not for the rich nor the great. 

And every laborer in this land ought to know — as 
many of them do know— that their interests are un- 
der the protection of the tariff system of the United 
States. They read in the Democratic platform that 
the Democratic party is opposed to that barrier, and 
opposed to anything that will save the laborers of 
America from the same poor pittance that the labor- 
ers of Europe and of China enjoy. [Applause.] You 
can see it as in a picture. When the Chinese come 
to California — full grown men without wives qr chil- 
dren, without religion, without schools, withoutchar- 
ities, without a share in the participation, or a desire 
for it, in this magnificent system of the dignity and 
glory of labor, then Denis Kearney and his friends 
can see that that impinges on their rates of wages. 
But the great mass of the Irish population of this 
country, that have come over to get rid of the crush- 
ing weight of taxes and of millitary expenses, and the 
Germans that have done the same, do not seem to see 
that they are voting for the lords of the loom and of 
the mine in Europe, to crush the competition of 
America and bring down the wages here, and then 
the wages there. 

Relations with the South, 

Now, this Democratic party is a very extraordinary 
thing. [Laughter.] Our relations to the South are 
to make them share and share alike with us in this 
Government, in the education, in the prosperity, in 



the wealth, in the liberty, in the happiness of this 
country. [Applause.] We draw no line. We want 
to diversify their industry. We want to fill out the 
forms of industry on them that are full with us. We 
\\ant to build them up. We do not wish to keep 
them in subordination and paying tribute to us. 

Now, let me read you what a great Democratic 
statesman tells the South, and what his plans for its 
benefits are. I mean Senator Wallace, of Pennsyl 
vania, and that I may not be accused of taking it 
from an obscure newspaper, I take it from the 
World, published in the City of New- York. Who is 
Senator Wallace ? He is the power that made Han- 
cock. He is a Pennsylvania Democrat. He is to 
Wallace what some other Presidential candidates 
were to the great statesman, Thurlow Weed. Wal- 
lace is the man that put Hancock on the course. 
Now, what has he said : " The genius of our people 
is progress, business and energetic life, and the par- 
ties that stand in their road will go down before the 
march of events." Here is some more : " Gen. 
Hancock is a representative of this unionism, and 
the Republican party are the exponents of the re- 
verse. Their policy destroys our control [he was 
talking in Pennsylvania] of the manufacturing inter- 
ests of the Republic, takes away from the North that 
peculiar control which has heretofore belonged to us, 
and builds factories, furnaces, rolling mills and work- 
shops by every river in the South. The South has 
been agricultural ; that is its natural sphere. Its 
enormous products from the soil have been and ought 
to continue to be the most important element in her 
progress and prosperity. Disunion, hatred, persecu- 
tion, have forced them to depend upon themselves, 
and they have deprived us of what is and ought to 
continue to be our natural market." 

Now, that is the view of the Democratic party on 
the tariff, that under the tariff industries have been 
fostered, and factories have been built up on every 
river in the South. Well, I think they will be, and 
if they will give us four years more of Republican 
administration the South will hum and buzz as Penn- 
sylvarua and Massachusetts do now. [Applause.] I 
have never heard of such folly avowed by a party 
that proposed and professed to be a friend of the 
solid South. Yes, keep them solid. Keep them clod- 
hoppers. Keep them peasantry. Don't let Republi- 
cans get hold of them, or they will make them rich 
and prosperous, and your Pennsylvania Democrats 
will have to share their riches with them. As I said 
before, if the American people listen to such states- 
manship as this, why, they will try a partnership in 
experience four years more. 

What do the South say to-day ? I saw this only 
yesterday. I read now from the Atlanta Constitu- 
tion, a leading newspaper of the Democratic party in 
Georgia. It quotes from the Memphis Avalanche: 
" Two thousand plows,"' says the Memphis Ava- 
lanche, " arrived on one steamer from the North. 
What this country wants is more plows and less 
politics to the acre." There is some sense in that — 
for the Memphis ^I'o/anc/^e. [Applause.] And then, 
says the Atlanta Constitution, " that is so, but we 
don't want more plows from the North, we want 
more plow factories and every kind of factories in 
the South, and make the articles we want." One 
would suppose that when the desiccated Democracy 
of the North says to the solid South, "We want to 



30 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVAETS. 



keep you clods, and sell you our wares," and the Re- 
publican party says, " We want you to make your 
o«n plows," and then the Atlanta Constitution says 
that It agrees that more plows and less politics to the 
acre would be a good thing, that they would like to 
have plow factories of their own, I say one would 
suppose the solid South would vote for the Republi- 
can party, and not for the desiccated Democracy. 
[Applause.] If the country has eaten of the " insane 
root " of this kind of reasoning and it is satisfactory 
to these sagacious statesmen, why, let it go. 

"What the Desiccated Democ- 
racy is. 

Well, we had some experience about the relations 
of this desiccated Democracy, and why do I call 
it the "desiccated Democracy !" Why, because all 
the j uices were taken out of it by the people that were 
opposed to the Lecompton bill, to Kansas and Ne- 
braska, and the war against the Union, and the war 
against the public faith and the war against the suf 
frage. But now they say it is being revived by the 
transfusion of the warm blood of the Republican 
party in the person of Charles Francis Adams [ap- 
plause] and Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois. This 
warm blood has been transfused into it, and since it 
got somewhat strengthened by the hot dose, with the 
still hotter one of Gen. Butler and Gen. Sickles and 
Gov. Shepherd, of the District of Columbia, until 
now this desiccated Democracy has become vigorated 
and enlivened, and is going through the motions of 
patriotism and reform. What a sacrilice these states- 
men ha\e been willing to make that they should, by 
the ])rocess of transfusion, revive a declining and de- 
caying party, and be satisfied -with the somewhat 
obscure though very useful function of corpuscles in 
their veins ! 

The Grumbling Solid South. 

Now, the solid South and this allied North present 
very curious records. You know they had the House 
and the Senate and the committees, and more votes 
in both hoi-.ses and everything, and one would sup- 
pose that they would be entitled to some show ; but 
the moment they wanted— I mean the solid South- 
wanted to choose a Speaker, why shouldn't they? I 
don't know v,hy they shouldn't choose a Speaker. 
The law of our Government is, that the majority in 
a party should rule. They were not allowed to 
choose a Speaker. They must always have a North- 
ern Democrat for Speaker, and so on in various 
measures, war claims and others. Oh, no, they must 
be silent. And then they turn around to this North- 
em Democracy and say, " Why, are not you the 
North? We thought you were the North." Oh, 
don't make such a terrible mistake as that. We are 
not the North. If you undertake to show your coun 
sels and your practices, you will find out who the 
North is. We are only the small boy that is put in 
at the side lights to let down the fastening, but the 
house-breaking will have to be done very silently and 
in the dark, and you must not make a noise. 

Well, it is like the case, when they grumble about 
it, of the Government ship that was on the coast of 
Africa in slave-trading times to suppress the slave 
trade, that seized the crew of the American slavers, 



and it was no doubt very hot. and when it came to 
night the Captain commanding the vessel, with such 
a raft of these fellows aboard, had to put on the 
hatches to keep them under there in the night-time — 
he could look after them in the day-time. Well, they 
came to him and said ; "Well, this is pretty hot." 
" Yes," he says, " I know it is. " And they said, " If 
you put on the hatches we can't sleep." "Well,'' 
said the Captain, " If I don't put on the hatches I can't 
sleep." And you may be sure that the hatches went 
on. And that is the ship that the South must be kept 
under the hatches of until the ship is delivered over, 
and the Democratic party then will come out from 
under the hatches and have a good time. 

Democracy Helpless for Good. 

Now, the Democratic party does not propose any 
thing. It proposes to be in power and undo. But I 
cannot see that it proposes to do any thing. It can- 
not help your currency. That is good enough. This 
country will ever be true to the greenbacks that 
saved them through their day of trial. When this 
Nation sat at the gate of victory and could not enter 
in, because the finances of the counti-y could not be 
hurried up rapidly enough to carry on the immense 
transactions of the war, and when they cried for the 
financial aid of the country, the Government said to 
them, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I 
have I give thee, and pledge the faith of this country. 
If you have faith in that, it will carry us through." 
And the crippled army leaped to its feet and entered 
the gate of victory. Will the American people ever 
asperse this greenback currency that represents the 
faith of the Nation? Will they ever fro«-n upon its 
maintenance as equal to specie, as a part of the life- 
blood of the country's finances? I think not, as long 
as they remember the occasion which gave it birth 
and the great services it has performed. 

I say, gentlemen, that I find nothing in the politics 
of the Democratic party that proposes any thing. It 
is to undo everything. It is to fight the war back 
from Appomattox to Sumter. It is to unravel the 
\\hole fabric of a noble and expanded nationality 
that the Republican party has woven for this people 
for a glory and a decoration forever. It is aimless. 
It is in the condition of the sage whom the youth, find 
ing an opportunity, thought it reasonable to consult 
as to ho\v he had come to such wisdom and such 
fame, and asked him what was his aim in life. 
"Why," said the sage, " a little fire. I have not any 
aim. I have fired." Now the Democratic party has 
not any aim. It has fired. It has failed in its fire, 
and it has no aim that touches the honor or the 
growth or the prosperity of this country. Now. the 
party that I have upheld to you for its great achieve- 
ments may be stricken down by the American people 
for what it has done, and in the only incomplete ser- 
vice that remains to fulfill its pledges and consum- 
mate your honor, it is resolved that there shall be a 
free ballot, a full vote and a fair count in this land— 
I all over it. If it is to be stricken down by the Amcri- 
i can people for that resolve, so be it. " Such a party,'' 
' to borrow the phrase of Lord BoHngbroke, " Such a 
party may fall, but if it fall, truth, liberty and reason 
will fall with it." [App!ause.]-/'?'om the Xew- York 
' Times, Thursday, Septeniber 30, 1880. 



SPEECH OF HENRY WARD BEECHER. 



31 



The Address of Hexry Ward Beecher, in the Cooper Union, N'ew- York 
City, Wednesday evening, October 13, 1880. 



I hardly think that any man in this great assem- 
bly can feel the same joy that I feel in the tidings 
that come from the State where my youth was spent, 
and where Uie opening scenes of my public life took 
place. Indiana was my early home, and my elder 
children wore from thcre^ and the word '■Iloosier" 
has never ceased to be music in my ears. [Applause.] 
When I went there, there was notau abolition speaker 
nor meeting from the North to the South in that 
State. I suppose that I delivered the first anti- 
slavery sermon that ever was delivered in the City of 
Indianapolis, the Capital of the State. My heart has 
gone to that State, and is with her, and while I to- 
night congratulate you I send to the far We^t, to her 
sous, and to her daughters, who inspired them to 
patriotism, my greeting, my thanks and my grati- 
tude. [Applause.] 

I am not thrilled with the victory in Ohio. When 
A great and good man does a good deed, no man lifts 
up his hand iu surprise. Ohio is used to doing such 
things. [Laughter and applause.] It is a matter of 
course, [laughter,] and whenever an emergeucj' takes 
place which involves really the national welfare, 
J^ew-York is accustomed to do the same thing. 
[Applause and cheers.] She may amuse herself at 
intervals. [Laughter.] There is a good deal of her. 
[Laughter.] But when the times glow serious, and 
the thoughtful men and laboring men — mechanics, 
merchants, professional men — look out and see that 
the signs of storms ai'e in the Heavens, all frolic 
ceases, and man joins his fellow man in high places 
and in low places through the whole State to rescue 
the nation and the Ivatioual welfare, [Applause. ] 

This country, ladies and gentlemen, is better adapt- 
ed for a harmonization of interestsand opinions than 
i;ny other countiy of which I Lave any knowledge. 
It is adapted on the great principle of reciprocal in- 
terests — it is adapted to the unity of the whole popu- 
lation. If it « ere all Xorth, if it \vere all South, if it 
were all East, if it were all West, the identity of in- 
terests would create sluggishness of circulation ; but 
because the harvests of the South are one thing, and 
the hars-ests of the North are another, those of the 
East another, and the productive energies of the West 
another, the circulation is maintained which carries 
vigorous life throughout every part of this Union. 
And although we have a tribute paid us of its best 
citizens from every nation of the globe — in Europe, in 
Asia, in Africa— yet as long as liberty is being sought, 
and since liberty is here regulated by institutions ; 
since law and institutions in this land have been 
created by the people themselves, who knew the 
wants of tlie common people, I would have the emi- 
grants find — wherever they come from — that for which 
they have pined, the want of which has neai'ly suffo- 
cated tliem in their own land. Because we have this 
vast people founded on institutions of liberty, de- 
signed to give scope and opportunity to every living 
man, we have a population that is inclined to friend- 
ship, to peace, to comity of interests ; and I hold 
that no party is worthy of one single hour's regard 



which docs not aim at the harmonization of the in- 
terests of every part of this broad continent. [Great 
cheers.] 

The Two Parties Compared. 

Convince me that the Democratic party is more 
National than the Republican party ; con\ince me 
that their measures will really carry out pe;ice more 
rapidly and more permanently than the measures 
of the Republican party, and I renounce my allegiance 
to the Republican party, and I go over to the Demo- 
crats. [Cheers.] But I don't go over. [Great 
cheers.] I don't at present see any likelihood of 
going over— neither I nor my children after me. 
[Renewed cheers.] 

If 'the Republican party is in favor of sectional 
interests, of class interests ; if it overslaughs the 
laborer, whose hands are his capital ; if it disregards 
the poor and the needy ; if it goes in for the rich iu 
contempt to the poor, for the North in derogation of 
the South, for the South at a mischief toward the 
North ; if it neglect the far Pacific States ; if it is not 
a party in whose very heart is the purpose to take 
care of the whole Nation, all its parts, all its interests 
and all its people — then I cannot ask you to vote for 
it. But it is because in my very l.eart of hearts I 
believe that it is a National party, seeking not alone 
nationality by controlling the Government, but hav- 
ing in its genius, in its history, in its inspirations, in 
its purposes, in its platform — in its platform and in 
all the legislation that will follow from it — having 
the interest of every section, of every class, of all 
conditions. North, South, East and West — it is for 
that reason that I am free to commend it to your 
suffrages, [Applause.] 

I am here to-night, gentlemen, to dig out votes. 
[Laughter.] It might be a pleasant thing for me to 
make pleasant sentences for you, and to weave in- 
genious rhetoric, but I come on a practical errand, to 
urge you, not alone personallj-, but by your influence 
with every man around about you, to roll up such a 
majority as there shall never be an opportunity again 
to make the issues that torment us to-day. [Loud 
applause.] I have, in the earlier days, been slightly 
a coutroventionalist, and in all conflicts I lia\e had 
one rule : So to strike a man when I struck him as 
never to need to strike twice. [Laughter and ap 
plause.] 

I say to the people of this State of New- York, and 
through them to the people of my whole country, 
let these Issues that have tormented us so long be 
settled, so that there shall never another politician 
come within gunshot of the question. [Applause.] 
Ladies and gentlemen, for fifty years past there has 
not sprung upon this nation one single disturbance 
through the North. [Applause,] AVe have been 
accused of being a sectional party and a Northern 
party. Now, I will defy the "cutest historian or 
diplomat to show- one great National disaster, jar or 
confusion that has sprung from the action of the 



32 



SPEECH OF HENRY WARD BEECHER. 



North. [Applause.] I go further, and declare that 
every one of the great conflicts that for twenty-five 
years have agitated this Nation, have sprung from 
the South, and not from the North. [Loud applause.] 
We have never vexed the West, we have never vexed 
the Northwest, nor they us. We have never vexed 
the Middle States, nor they us. We have defended 
ourselves against the South, but we never intruded 
upon them and they have intruded upon the Na- 
tional peace. [Loud cheers.] 

Aggressions of the South. 

When slavery began to lift a head of power, it, de- 
spite both the traditions and the solemn covenants of 
the United States, undertook to invade the free terri- 
tory of the Northwest, and a great and hot debate 
ensued, which was settled by what was called the 
Missouri Compromise. That great national instru- 
ment came from the South and not from the North. 
As the growth of the South still went on with her i 
prosperity, and her riches and her slaves, then it be- 
came important that the South should steal "more [ 
territory, and it was the South that destroyed the i 
Missouri Compromise, and abolished that line. It [ 
was the South that invaded Kansas, and brought on ] 
all those conflicts that resulted in so much blood- 
shed then and in the wars that followed since. 

The Mexican war was not bred and hatched in the 
North. It was also one of the whelps of slavery. 
[Great applause.] The Fugitive Slave law was not 
enacted in Boston or New-York, though there were 
sneaking minions to execute it here. There never was 
so arrogant, so needless an insult thrown in the face 
of any people as the enactment of the Fugitive Slave 
law, and that we owe to the South. Then came the 
right proclaimed of Secession. Was it the North 
that precipitated the division of this country ? Was 
it the North that drew the sword ? The first declara- 
ation in a practical form was made from the shores 
of South Carolina when she bombarded Fort Sumter. 
And the whole great war was the product of Southern 
doctrine and Southern citizenship, and not of the 
North. [Applause.] Yet some men proclaim that 
the Republican party is a Northern party, and that 
the North is a section, and they are scheming to de- 
nationalize the country, and seeking to make our 
party an aristocratic party. These are the doctrines 
that have for the last twenty years ploughed this 
land as with a red-hot iron, and these have been from 
the South and not from the North. The Democratic 
party now in this impending conflict, in every ward, 
in every precinct, in every State, are declaring that 
there will be no peace in this land until the Demo- 
crats rule. They are saying that all the great mis- 
chiefs that have befallen this land have sprung from 
the reign of the Republican party. 

National Mischiefs due to the 
Democrats. 

They are not the first. There was something of 
the same sort that happened some 3,000 years ago. 
It was when old Elijah had stood for the liberty of 
his people and for the truth of the religion of God 
that he met Ahab, and Ahab said to him: "Art 



thou he that troubleth Israel ?" Ahab had brought 
In the worship of idols and abolished the altars of 
Jehovah, and sought to put up Balaam's altars and 
fill the land with his praise. And old Elijah, with 
long locks and with a burning eye, exclaimed: "I 
have not troubled Israel. Thou hast forsaken the 
commandments of the Lord, and hast brought in the 
worship of Balaam." 

And I say to the Democratic party, if there has 
been trouble on the continent, if there has been 
war, we are not to be charged with having played 
hyena to the lion, like those who during the war 
hung like dead-weights on the Union wheels, and 
who, in all the work of Governmental recon.struction, 
never raised so much as a little finger in the way of 
a possible settlement. Yes, gentlemen, the North 
has been ordained, I believe, by the Divine Provi- 
dence, to etand for the continent and the whole 
Nation. The philosopher may tell you to-day that 
all the storms that ravage the Atlantic coast are 
bred in the great Caribbean Sea. All the storms 
that ravage this Nation have been bred in the 
Southern Caribbean Sea of the Gulf States. What, 
then, are Southern citizens ? Are they worse than 
we are ? Are we pedagogues whose mission is to 
punish fractious pupils ? Are we the people with 
whom wisdom is alone reposed ? Are we barbaric 
and they civilized ? Individually the citizens of the 
South are as good as we are. [Applause.] As noble 
men live there as live in New-York State. Indeed, 
in social traits, in a high sense personal honor, in 
fidelity to their convictions, in standing up openly 
and in a manly way to that which they believe, they 
need no eulogy from me. Their courage is as good 
as our courage. 

Ladies and gentlemen, there has not been a Boy in 
Blue that has been for four years in the South that 
has not learned to respect Southern courage. [Ap- 
plause.] And there has not been a general in the 
South— whatever they may have become — there is not 
a Southern commander who has not learned to re- 
spect Northern courage. [Applause.] I have this to 
say : When the South went into the conflict of the 
war, they went in not only in earnest but they went 
in with a willingness to sacrifice property and 
life for their conviction, and, for two or three years 
the North did not half believe its o\vn cause, and the 
South believed its own cause all the time : and I am 
not here to deprecate the South — I am not here to criti- 
cize in this respect. [Applause.] Their organized 
political action has not been wise. Their people are 
a noble people, and I am proud of them, and not the 
less so that now for the first time at the age of seven- 
ty years it would be safe for me to go to the South. 
[Laughter.] I am not here to make the breach wider, 
but to narrow and close it up ; not by compromise, 
not by pretence or political jugglery, but by the ad- 
vocacy of such principles as must become common to 
the whole land, or the whole land will be restless and 
disturbed for four years to come. [Great applause.] 
The whole mischief hitherto has arisen from the 
nature of an institution. It lay at the basis of the 
whole economy of the South, and it forced them to 
adopt the doctrine of State Sovereignty, and it forced 
upon them the consequences of the war, and certain 
results of that doctrine which have been disturbing 
to them and to us. 



SPEECH OF HEURY WARD BEECHER. 



33 



State Rights and State 
Sovereignty. 

Now, the doctrine of State Rights must not be con- 
founded with the doctrine of State Sovereignty. The 
South holds to State Sovereignty ; the North holds 
simply to State Rights, and that only. We deny that 
the North has ever interfered with the Southern 
States' rights, but it has denied State Sovereignty. 
The doctrines are alike up to a certain point. Nobody 
denies that there are certain local State rights which 
remain under the control of the citizens of a State. 
There are certain rights of every school district that 
the other districts cannot meddle with, and yet the 
town is superior to any of its districts. There are 
certain town rights not to be meddled with by the 
county, and yet the county is superior in many re- 
spects to the town. There are county rights which 
the Legislature cannot meddle with, and yet the State 
and its Legislature are superior to the county and its 
commissioners in every respect. There are certain 
rights of every State in this continent which cannot 
be meddled with with impunity, and yet the Nation is 
superior to the States. [Great applause.] 

The sum of all the States, acting within certain de- 
fined and constitutional lines, is superior to the in- 
tegral elements that constitute the sovereignty of the 
Nation. Yet the doctrine of the South has been that 
State rights were not only assured aud guaranteed to 
them up to a certain line, but that when it is to the 
interest of a certain State to break up the confederacy 
of States, as they call it, the right to break up every- 
thing is inherent in them. It is as if a man should 
say : " I have hired a room in this common hotel, and 
if I like I will take the wall down on my side of the 
hotel for my room." [Great applause.] He has no 
right to let in the cold and weather for his own accom- 
modation ; and no State has the right to break do^^^l 
the walls of the great Union anywhere to the damage 
of a majority of the States. Nowhere have State 
Rights a guarantee and privilege, a mission to do that 
which shall be for the damage of the whole Nation. 
[Tremendous cheers and applause.] 

Now, it is supposed that the North don"t believe in 
State Eights. Well, they don't believe in anything 
else, [laughter,] if one might say so. Where was 
the doctrine of State Rights born ? Georgia ? She 
didn't know anything about it long after it had 
attained its majority in New-England. [Laughter.] 
It was not in the Carolinas, nor was it in Virginia, 
nor in Delaware, nor in Maryland. It was in the old 
New-England colonies that State Rights first grew, 
and every year since, and never more than to-day, 
every single State of the North, New-England, New- 
York and all their progeny far West to the Pacific, 
were just as much in favor of the doctrine of State 
Rights as the South itself is ; but we discriminate 
between State rights within the Nation and State 
sovereignty over the Nation. [Applause.] When 
the colonists came, Plymouth colony was settled, 
and then Massachusetts Bay colony was established, 
and afterwiird Rhode Island and Connecticut, and so 
jealous were they of the rights of each colony that it 
was years and years before they could be brought into 
any kind of combined action for fear that the neigh- 
boring States would take advantage one of the other. 
They had just come out from England, where 



they had an arbitrary Church, that could step down 
into their conventicles and tell them what they must 
believe and what they must not believe, and they 
didn't like it. They had had an arbitrary State 
Government that went into their neighborhood and 
imposed most tyrannical conditions upon the liberty 
of citizens, and they didn't like it ; and they came to 
this country on purpose to establish the right of 
every community to take care of its own affairs. 
That was the very key-note, that was the very germ, 
of the colonies of New-England, and it was natural 
that they should carry it to excess. It was natural 
that Connecticut should say to Plymouth in 1G4.3, 
when Connecticut proposed that there should be a 
combination of the New-England States, in view of 
Indian wars and the French war— it was very natural 
that Connecticut should say, " There cannot be any 
combination that don't reserve to us absolutely and 
totally every one of our rights. ' And then Massa- 
chusetts said, " But you are so jealous of your rights 
and we are jealous of ours." And Plymouth colony 
said, "We are just as jealous of ours ;" and they 
could not get them together, and the time went by, 
and it was not until a good many years later than 
that that they could get a temporary combination of 
the States of New-England to act in common against 
the Indian adversary. It was years and years, so 
jealous were they of the colonial rights ; and when 
at a later period there were various tentative efforts 
made to combine the colonies against the oppression 
of their mother country, it was only by taking the 
experience which at last had been wrought out in 
New-England, by which the rights of each colony 
were held compatibly with the rights of a common 
head to all the colonies— it was only then that we 
found out how to establish a nation upon the platform 
of separate individual States. Aud when people 
talk about State Rights as being Southern. I say it 
breathed the breath of life first in the colonies. It 
was rocked in the cradles of New-England. It went 
out with the children of New-England. It is the 
father of the doctrine of State Rights over this whole 
continent ; and it has never from that day to this 
died out of the jealous love of the people from whom 
it sprang. [Applause.] 

Southern Belief not Changed. 

But when it was found necessary for the sake of 
establishing the Federal Government, to make head 
against a foreign adversary, that something should 
be gi^en up by every State, then, modified by a gen- 
uine National impulse, moved by a consideration of 
the general good, New-England modified and limited 
her doctrine of State Rights, so as to sacrifice some- 
thing of her local rights for the sake of the general 
good to the whole of the nation. Just opposite to 
that was the way in \\hich the cause of State Rights 
was treated in the South, not because by reason they 
had come to a different conclusion, but because there 
was in the midst of them a system at war \vith every- 
thing himian and divine ; a system that degraded 
labor, made men like machinery and like cattle, and 
it \vas a system odious to God and to man, and lived 
only by the devil. [Laughter.] Now it became 
necessary to the South, as against the tendencies of 
Government, as against civilization— it became neces- 
sary to buUd up walls around about that black spot 



34 



SPEECH OF HENET WAED BEECHER. 



they had in their midst, and therefore the South nar- 
rowed, or rather enlarged, that doctrine of State 
Rights, and they maintained a more local State doc- 
trine, namely, the doctrine of absolute sovereignty 
of every State, while New-England made herself 
compatible to all the States of the Union. [Ap- 
plause.] The North, though maintaining her local 
rights, generously gave up so many of them as made 
ail the States better ; the South maintained local 
rights, and was not willing to give up one whit for the 
sake of the common good of this continent. That 
was the trouble that led to the war. 

Now, it is said, why do you debate this question that 
was put to the arbitration of the sword, and the sword 
declared that the doctrine was false ? [Applause.] 
Aye, gentlemen, the sword may slay, but the sword 
cannot convince ; and Southern men are just as be- 
sotted with the doctrine of State sovereignty to-day 
as they were before they drew the sword of war. It 
is true, that so far as that was concerned, that issue 
was determined by the voice of the people of these 
United States, but the question has come baclv to-day, 
for you and me and all citizens to answer in this 
form : Will you stand up to the doctrine which you 
have vindicated by your sword ? [Applause.] Has 
the w"ar changed the belief of Southern citizens ? 
Not a whit ! They believe just as they did before. 
Has the war turned out of Southern seminaries, col- 
leges and universities the men that teach the doctrines 
of Callaoun ? Those doctrines are taught in every 
principal seminary and college of the South, just as 
before the war. The lawyers, doctors, ministers, 
politicians, that are being educated in Southern insti- 
tutions, are educated in precisely the same doctrines 
as they were ^^■hen they decided to stick to their own 
interest as against the common interests of the whole 
coantry. They have now taken to themselves tlie 
remnant of the Democratic party. [Applause.] If 
the Democrats should take possession of the General 
Government, will not the energy of this gi'eat nation 
be used to carry out Southern doctrines ? If I was a 
Southern man home in the South, and I believed that 
it was good, I would use the Go\ernmcnt by which 
to propagate and fortify it. Human nature is not so 
different on the two sides of ^Mason and Dixon's line. 
They may liave victory to-day or to-morrow, but I 
tell you there never Mill be peace on this conti- 
nent until the peace is founded on right doctrines. 
[Applause.] It used to be said when I was a younger 
man than I am now, " If you will only hold your 
peace, if the pulpit would not agitate it, if the 
Cliurch would not agitate it, and if the lecture plat- 
form would not agitate it, and if you let coinmerce 
alone, we will settle tlie difficulties." And our cry to 
them was your cry of " Peace ! peace ! Why there 
is no peace." I say if the Democratic party go into 
an alliance with the Southern element, tliey enter 
again into the shadow of another penumbra, and 
- that the men and the sons of the men that refuse to 
hold their peace and pour out discussion hot, their 
conscience will take up again their deplorable con- 
dition, and in tlie end there will be no peace until the 
doctrine of our forefatliers will become the doctrine 
of the whole nation. [Long continued applause.] I 
will give you chance enough to applaud before I get 
through. [Applause and laughter.] M'ait till I get 
out of breath if you want to. [Applause.] 



Gentlemen — I would say ladies and gentlemen if 
ladies were allowed to vote [laughter] — the South 
for fifty years after the institutions of this country 
had been founded, the South dominated, for a long 
time very wisely, and not until slavery had developed 
itself, so as to poison tliem root and branch, did tlieir 
wisdom forsake them. But for fifty years the coun- 
sels of the Southern men were a succession of 
blunders. There never were so many blunders since 
the Democrats were in power. But now the South 
seems determined to make one more great blunder. 
When the conflict had been settled by the sword, 
sagacious statesmen would have said, that if the 
South ever comes into power again it will be through 
an alliance with tlie men who conquered it and con- 
trolled it. But in truth, the Soutli drew off suddenly 
and she refused the hand of friendship. Wlien tlie 
Administration offered the olive brancli, not one 
single State was willing to accept the proffered hand 
of President Hayes. [Applause.] That was a gigantic 
blunder. If the South had said, " We accept the 
situation," it would have been better for tliem. 
They should have said, ''We will go with you and 
help maintain the Government on your principles ;" 
the South then would have been all back again. The 
Democratic party had been defeated in the North, 
and also in the South, and these two defeated parties 
came together and undertook to assert the sovereignty 
of the South, and of tliis fragment of tlie Democratic 
party. They have come together to-day, and they 
are trying to control the Government under the old 
Southern doctrine, and we, the people, are deter- 
mined that they shall not do it. [Loud and continued 
applause.] We are determined to fight it out on this 
line if it takes twenty-five summers. It is best for 
the Nation that Republican ideas of administering 
the Government shall prevail. [Applause.] It is 
best for the South that Republican ideas shall pre- 
vail. [Applause.] It will bring about that settle- 
ment which will never need to be settled again. 
[Hearty applause.] 

The Question of Centralization. 

But now comes Judge Black. [Laughter.] He and 
those who agree with him declare that the Republi- 
can party is about to betray this Nation by a central- 
ization of this Government, and that we ai'e, day by 
day, bringing in centralization. There are always 
two antagonistic forces to determine the course any 
people sliall t;ike. There is tlie force of the central 
Federal Government in its sphere, and that of the 
States in their sphere. There is a perpetual liability 
of conflict between the local independence of the 
State and the authority of the Nation. Sometimes 
one prevails a little too much and sometimes the 
other, but in the main tlie equilibrium between them 
is preserved. When Buchanan sat in the Presidential 
chair and declared that there was no power in the 
Constitution to coerce a sovereign State — there was 
the danger. [Applause.] The future of this Nation 
will depend on the authorit}', pre-eminence, and skill 
and efiiciency of the central government. [Applause.] 
The mischiefs have never come from our own action 
of the Government. When the South committed 
burglary against this Nation, and the last Democratic 
President— I hope he will be the last [applause] — de- 



SPEECH OF IIEXKY WARD BEECUER. 



35 



clared that he had no power— declared not only that, 
but that there was no power anywhere, Stanton con- 
vinced him that there was, and this great people 
stepped forward to prove it. [Applause.] I admit 
that there were, in the conduct of the Government, 
a good many mistakes. I remember Mr. Seward's 
little bell was commented upon. Mr. Se\\ard was 
always in a hurry with unimportant things, and just 
the reverse with important things. No surgeon has 
any excuse, having a hospital and his own time and 
implements at his command, for cutting too wide or 
deep, and injuring where he should save. But when 
on the battlefield, while the battle rages and the sky 
is illumined by the fire of the enemy, the surgeon, 
seeing soldiers falling around him, finds a man who 
must be operated upon, if he cuts a little wide or too 
deep— why excuse him. [Applause.] If our Gov- 
ernment, in the great emergency of the Nation, made 
a few mistakes, v.hat they lacked in one direction 
they made up in another, and there was but very 
little mischief. [Applause.] And men are sur- 
prised that, in the settlement of the great conflict 
which took place afterward, the machine was not put 
together in a minute, and joined together as bar 
moniously as an Italian organ. [Great laughter.] 
"Ah!" they say, " see how the Republican humbugs 
are bungling." It is as if the monkey on the machine 
should criticize the music of Beethoven and Mozart. 
[Tremendous laughter and applause.] It would 
not be more impertinent than for those who brought 
on the war to criticize the manner in whicli we took 
up the fragments and put them together and gave 
them life. [Great applause.] It was the Republican 
party which restored the Nation ; not without some 
mistakes, but with fewer, when we consider the mul- 
titude of elements, the want of experience, than any 
nation in the world which has acted in such a drama 
as that could have done. And I look back upon the 
war and see the Nation come out of the drama and 
pay every dollar incurred in the struggle ; I see the 
quick bringing back of the States into fellowship 
again, and when I see the leniency with which they 
were treated, I say that such a scene was never known 
on the face of the earth ; and it cannot be known in 
any other nation than the humane, liberal American 
people. A v.ar that destroyed a million of lives and 
six millions of property ; which kept tlie Continent 
in a turmoil for five years, and yet, when it was set- 
tled, not a cord was stretched, not a stroke heard, 
not a drop of blood spilt. There was blood enough 
— blood enough, the people said ; let there be an end 
of the executioner ; and the man that loudest sang, 
" Let us hang JefE Davis on a sour apple tree," would 
not have drawn the cord if he had it in his hand, 
[applause,] and flying in the garb of a woman, he 
would have appealed to honorable sympathies. [Tre- 
mendous laughter and applause.] 

Views on Free Trade. 

Now, gentlemen, I have had a tolerably good evi- 
dence of your kindness, but now I am going to say 
something, and I want to be at peace with you, 
and won't let you quarrel with me on the point I am 
going to make, and it is going to turn out better than 
you think when I open it. [Laughter.] The only 
point in which I disagree w ith the Republican party 



campaign is on the tariff. I am a Free Trader, [cheers 
and hisses,] and I am a free speaker, too. [Applause.] 
I believe that the philosophy of the future is free 
trade. I believe that the nations should come to it 
just as fast as they can. I believe that as this Nation 
of forty States has no tariff between them, it is bet- 
ter, and the time wall come when the nations of the 
earth will be in the condition when there will be no 
Custom Houses between them, but free trade amongst 
them from the Nortli and South and the East and 
West. I preach that doctrine, and if in campaigns 
hereafter you find me speaking on the free trade 
platform, you must not be surprised or think that I 
go with my party in everything. But— but [laugh 
ter]— when the people, though they have mistaken 
a policy of political economy, have embarked in it ; 
when the great body of our citizens have adjusted 
their business and capital upon the principle, though 
erroneous, we have no right to twitch from tlicm the 
foundations on which they have builded, without 
giving them time. [Great applause.] 

No policy of free trade, thougli it is the sound 
and true one, can ever prevail at once. Time must 
give it ripeness. When the other principle has pre- 
vailed for so long, it would be wanton, it would be 
not only unwise, but unutterable foil}' to make a 
sudden change. If a change is to be made, it must 
be made by cool men in cool times. How shall it l)e 
made? How fast ? By what measures ? It must be 
determined by ripe counsels of practical men. A 
tribunal of arbitrament for such questions should 
not be composed of a ferocious and tumultuous and 
headlong party. Look at the Court as constituted. 
Fourteen Southern States and a fragment of the 
Democratic party of the North. They are to sit in 
judgment upon and criticize a policy which has been 
followed for thirty or forty years, on which the 
foundations of the Nation have been built. Is that 
a proper tribunal — are these the right kind of men to 
judge ? You cannot go into a fight for Free Trade, 
and influence the votes of men to-day. The world 
I will not come to an end to-morrow. You must let 
the doctrine ripen. 

"Ah," but a man would say, "if you think that 
you are doing wrong, should you not renounce it at 
once ■•" If it is a personal sin, I do — if a political 
mistake, I do not. When the captain of a ship unin- 
tentionally steers east, meaning to go south, and, 
running into a complicated channel on the east or 
north, when the fog breaks away he finds himself in 
peril, this man would then say : " Oh, you must go 
back— return the way you came." But that is not 
so. You could not in such a case go back with 
safety. You must find a channel in the direction in 
wliich you first set out. And, therefore, I say it is a 
fair appeal made to every man that is getting liis 
day's wages: "Do not make a change suddenly.'' 
I say in behalf of every man who is engaged in manu- 
factures, it is unwise and impolitic to force that issue 
upon capital and the industi-ies of the coimtry sud- 
denly. I say to every man who is importing and sel- 
ling, or using property for domestic hapi)iness, no 
such sudden changes are safe or healthy, especially 
when they involve such enormous interests ; and I 
don't think that it would be wise to get the Demo- 
crats to make them. [Great laughter.] Now, gen- 
I tlemen, if you can advocate a tariff, and at the same 



36 



SPEECH OF HENRY WARD BEECHER. 



time vote for no change of it more slvilfully than 1 again, and generally there is a run of ten to fifteen 



that, I would like to see you get up here and try it. 
[Laughter.] Yet I think this policy is right and laid 
in solid grounds. 

No Change Wanted. 

Well, I hear those on the other side, young men— 
and some of them very young— say : " The Republi- 
cans have been in power long enough ; it is time we 
had a change." Well, geutlemen, let us ask these 
men deliberately, what kind of a change do you 
want ? Do you want a change in our foreign rela- 
tions ? We are in peace and amity with every Nation 
on the globe. You cannot change that state of 
things unless you go to war. Well, then, do you want 
a change in our finances ? When a paper dollar is 
worth a gold dollar, I cannot see what change you 
want there ; you cannot make it worth two dollars. 
Other men would say: "We want more paper 
dollars." Now a paper dollar represents property, 
and I have no objection to your increasing property, 
but I protest against your increasing that which 
represents it ; you would find a very quick limit to 
the increase of the representative of property when 
there was no property to be represented. You have 
got gold and silver. We are generous of our gold 
and prodigal of our silver. We have a dollar, worth 
a dollar if it is gold, and we give about 80 cents or 85 
cents for it if it is silver. [Laughter.] Gentlemen, 
we have got silver enough. I wish some of these 
men that are bothering about the polls were sent out 
to dig it ; [laughter ;] their counsel and their action 
at home are not very profitable. 

In regard to everybody else there is universal con- 
tent. If I go to the artist's he tells me : " There is a 
very large demand springing up for my pictures ;" 
if I go to the builder's they tell me they are having 



years, according to the nation. If it is a vital nation, 
the settling up comes in about ten to fifteen years ; 
in a conservative nation, like the British, it comes in 
about twenty years ; if the nation is more phleg- 
matic, like the Dutch, it takes fifty years to do it. 
[Laughter.] But we are on the dawn of a day of 
prosperity such as has never been measured out to 
this land, [applause,] and the R^ublican party, 
having gone through the night ; having carried the 
Nation safely through all its past dilhculties ; having 
suffered in every possible way ; having vindicated its 
patriotism, and being now about to stretch out its 
hand and reach its just reward of quiet and peaceful 
comfort, which prosperity brings, the minions of 
Slaveocracy and Democracy start up and say, " Gen- 
tlemen, get down from the seat, and let us get up and 
drive." [Laughter.] 

Where is there a guarantee for another four years 
of prosperity clearer than the f oiu- years that are run- 
ning out to. day? Who is he that can inaugurate a 
kinder policy than President Hayes has done ? [Ap- 
plause.] Where can you pick out a Secretary who 
can manage the Treasury as Sherman does ? [Ap- 
plause.] When has there ever been a Cabinet, from 
the days of Washington cleaner in every member of 
it than the Cabinet that now consults in Washing- 
ton? [Applause.] And yet men can say, looking 
at these four millennium years : " We want a change !" 
Do you want to go from good to bad? Do you want 
to go from prosperity backward? Ah, I know the 
answer of the Democratic party. They were the men 
that cried in the wilderness for the leeks and onions 
of Egypt, and they wanted to go back to Egypt for 
they hadn't enough to eat. [Laughter.] Gentlemen, 
the leeks and the onions are not for the Democratic 
party just yet. [Renewed laughter.] And yet I am 
a very great friend of the Democrats. [Laughter.] 



house after house pressed upon them ; I go to the i whom I love I chasten. [Roars of laughter.] 



mason, and his trowel clinks on the brick from early 
morning to late at night. I ask the loom and it says, 
"I am crowded to death with work;" I go to the 
plough — it shines as a mirror, rubbed through the 
furrows to bring out the harvests that all Europe 
and all the world wants ; [applause ;] I ask the com- 



They were doing a wise thing when they put up 
Hancock as their candidate. He is a very wise man. 
I do not think he is ordained to be the headpiece of 
the Democratic party— that is, I do not think he will 
be their President— but he is a very eminent man. 
He is a man who has earned the gratitude of his times 



pass and the rudder, and they say never were the foj. i^ig services in the war. [Applause.] I have no 
seas more propitious; I ask commerce and agricul- [sympathy with those that dissect his character to his 
culture and manufacture ; I ask the fine arts, scholar- disadvantage. I have no sympathy with those that 



ship and learning, and there comes an answer as of 
one voice from every interest — domestic, private, 
public— everywhere the Nation was never more 
prosperous than it is to-day. [Loud applause.] 

And now you want a change. [Laughter.] To do 
what ? A change to carry this prosperity forward 
faster would not be a wholesome change. In that way 
lies speculation, fictitious prosperity, the insanity of 
hope ; moderation is on this side. The other change, 
and the only one is to go back to the dollar customs 
of the early days, when men did nothing but attend 
to politics. No, no. This Nation was never more 
blessed than it is to-day. [Loud applause.] 

Now, National prosperity lasts about ten or fifteen 
years, and then the natural evolution of things brings 
matters to a point. We give men credit, as it were, 
for a period of ten to fifteen years ; then we call 
upon every man to settle up. Settling up is called 
a crisis. [Laughter.] And it is. [Renewed laugh 
ter.] Then, when we have settled up we all start 



throw mud at him. I have no sympathy not only with 
those who detract from him, and just as little with the 
party that goes down on its belly to write " 329 " on the 
sidewalks. [Roars of laughter.] Gentlemen, Ohio 
has given to us the interpretation of that mystic sign 
[applause]— 329 cheers for Garfield. [Loud applause.] 
Now, gentlemen, if this were meeting-time you 
would be asleep most of you. [Laughter.] But it is 
said of old that " the children of tliis world aje wiser 
in their generation than the children of light," and 
you are wide awake to-night, and you will be to- 
morrow, and you will be in every subsequent day ; 
and I have only one or two more points that I wish to 
makewithyou. [Cries of " Go on."] I am going on. 
[Laughter.] That's what I am here for. [Laughter.] 

No Hatred to-ward the South. 

I have one word to say, that I should be very glad 
to have carried to all the South— which, if I dont 



SPEECH OF HENRY "WARD BEECHER. 



37 



get old too fast, I mean to stump yet one day before 
I die ; that is, that there is no feeling of animosity 
in the hearts of the North toward the Southern 
people. [Applause.] We recognize that the pros- 
perity of the North itself depends on the prosperity 
of the South. [Applause.] We want their towns to 
be rebuilt ; we want to see their industries re-estab- 
lished ; we want to see them at peaee with them- 
selves ; we want to see them at peace with their 
fellow-citizens throughout the whole of this Nation ; 
we want the long catalogue of invectives, the long 
line of evil thoughts that have arisen through years 
gone by— we want them to go down like the dreams 
of the troubled and the fevered night. [Applause.] 
We want to take them by the hand as fellow-citizens. 
We want to see them brought back into Congi'ess. 
They are there ; and I take no part nor stock in the 
ridicule poured on the "Brigadiers." Gentlemen, 
when the South moved as one man into the war, as 
far as my observation went, with here and there 
single exceptions, the most honorable, wisest and 
best men went into the movement, and when she 
came back and her States were admitted again, if the 
South sent to Congress anybody, it was her interest 
and her duty to send her best men there ; and when 
she selected her Brigadier-Generals she selected her 
best men and sent them there. She did well. I have 
no criticism to make. 

More than that, I would fight just as soon for South 
Carolina as for my native State of Connecticut against 
anything that could destroy her local liberty and in- 
dependence ; [applause :] and what I would do for 
one State I would do for every State down there. All 
that I say is this : Restore, as they have had restored, 
then: State rights ; give them plenary liberty to trans- 
act their own affairs. For one, I believe that the 
time will come ere long when they will do justice to 
the black citizens there. If they do not do it at once, 
the Government of the United States cannot do it for 
them. That time has gone by. It might have been 
done earlier. I shall not go into that policy nor dis- 
cuss that question ; but at present it cannot be done 
by the Federal Government. ;Measures must be 
taken by which the South shall be so far divided 
as that there shall be in the Southern States 
two parties, one for and the other against, and 
then they will divide their colored voters between 
them, and tliey will respectively take care of them. 
[Applause.] In that way that question is yet to be 
settled. But now, I say, they have sent to Congress 
their best men. They have as much right to sit in 
Congress to-day as the members from New- York or the 
members from Boston. [Applause.] I want to de- 
tract no whit from their merit or their opportunities ; 
but this is what I say : that while we restore to them 
their local independence, put their own State alTairs 
absolutely into their hands, bring them back as coun- 
sellors into our National Congress, and treat them as 
fellow-citizens, I say that it is not time yet to give them 
the administration of the National Government, and 
for them to determine the policy of this Nation. 
[Appl.inse.] They are not ripe for that. It belongs 
to the Kast ; it belongs to the Northwest ; it belongs 
to the North ; it belongs to the Middle States ; and 
the" Southern States have got to lie in quarantine un- 
till the smell of yellow fever and black vomit is off 
from their garments. [Applause and laughter.] 



Witnesses of the Struggle. 

Now, gentlemen, it is not enough— and this is the 
second remark that I wish to make — for us, that we 
just squeeze throvigh this election, and carry the 
country. If you wish to have the question settled 
without any resurrection, there ought to be such a 
testimony of the voters of these United States as 
shall forever more debar the entrance into politics 
of the questions that vex us to-day. Do your work 
strongly. Roll up such a majority in the State of 
New- York as shall make a man a lunatic that i)ro- 
poses ever to undertake to moot the question again. 
[Applause.] It is not enough for Indiana to roll up 
her 5,000 or 6,000. [Applause.] It is not enough 
for Ohio to give her 25,000. [Applause.] That does 
very well. New-York must come in with her -10,000 
votes, [applause,] and it depends simply on the will 
— your will, and the will of men like you, who believe 
that the interests of this country are above every other 
interest ; who believe they are called of God as well as 
of patriotism, to cleanse this Nation of its contamina- 
tions and put it upon a broad foimdatiou, where there 
shall be a nationality without a North, without a 
South, without an East, without a West. [Applause.] 

We are not working in a corner nor in a hole. If 
there ever was a Nation whose prosperity had at- 
tracted the thoughtful regard of wise men through- 
out the world, this is that Nation. If there has e\ er 
been surprise sprung upon men at the developments 
of human nature, the conduct of this Nation in the 
war, and after the war, and to this hour has given that 
surprise. Not only are we surrounded with a cloud 
of earthly witnesses in this great campaign, but all 
the men that landed with our fathers, in the misty dis- 
tance, obscm-e to us but clear to them, are looking 
down upon us. It is the nation they founded, and if 
the rock could speak, as once the rock gushed forth 
with water for the famished crowd, old Plymouth 
Rock would give forth a voice to all the men of the 
Republican party and of the nation, saying : " Keep, 
build, fortify that which we founded."' [Applause.] 

Scarcely, like a reed blown from the wind in the 
sky, have they gone out of sight before we behold 
the reverent founders of the Constitution and the 
fathers of this nation. They, too, are the witnesses 
of their children, and they plead that this Constitu- 
tion, which was ordained to Liberty, shall neither be 
undermined nor blackened, nor weakened, iior per- 
verted into an instrument of tyranny by their pos- 
terity. Heed their voice. And scarcely have they 
gone out of sight when, gathering like armies, multi- 
tudinous as the drops of the storm-cloud, the men that 
laid down their lives for the Nation appear and lift 
up their voices and reach out airy hands to beseech 
us to preserve immaculate that for which they bled 
to gain. [Loud applause.] And high above them all, 
and most reverent, I behold the immortal form of 
the Father of his Country, a Southerner and loving 
the South. Methinks he turns his face from the 
North, and says to his brethren of the South : "Ye 
know not what ye do. Be at peace. Maintain the 
Govenunent. Submit to the law ; and let there be 
brotherhood in all the land, and your God and my 
God shall pour his blessing upon the Nation." 
[Tremendous apijlause, in the midst of which Mr. 
Beecher slowly retired.] — From the New- York Trir 
buiie, Thursday October 14, 1880. 



SPEECH OF EMERY A. STORES. 



Tlte Speech of the Hon. Emery A. Storrs, of CJdcago, in the Coojoer 
Union, N'ew-YorJc City, Wednesday trig Jd, October 20, 1880. 



Mr. Chairman— Fellow Citizens : I am exceed- 
ingly gratified to meet so munj- Republicans of the 
great City of New- York under the circumstances 
under which I now meet them — presented by one of 
the most distinguished lawyers and one of the most 
distinguished Republicans of the country. [Ap- 
plause.] I am delighted that one whom all this 
country, and indeed all the world, is proud to honor 
is here with us to-night. [Applause and cheers.] I 
am delighted that while I do not bring good tidings 
— you ha\e heard them — yet I speak to the Republi- 
cans of this imperial City in the presence of the 
greatest success which our great party has ever 
achieved. [Applause.] I speak after two great 
sti'ongholds have been carried, after the election has 
finally been determined, after Ohio has vindicated 
her fidelity to the cause by 20,000 majority, [ap- 
plause,] after Indiana has spoken by 7,000 and rising. 
[Applause.] 

I confess that in the presence of these great victories 
I feel a most solid and holy joy — a joy not unmixed 
with sadness in contemplating the great grief that 
has come over the very worthy gentlemen \\\\o are 
to-da}' busily engaged in crawling out from beneath 
the falling fragments of their old exploded machinery. 
[Laughter.] I commiserate that distinguished states- 
man from Massachusetts [laughter] who left our 
party a little too soon, and who joined the other party 
a little too quick. [Laughter.] I commiserate the 
two or three distinguished gentlemen from New- 
York City whose departure was well intended, but 
ill timed. [Laughter.] I commiserate Mr. Jerome 
and his Hancock Republican Club, and the general 
poverty that attends the treasury department of that 
club. [Great laughter.] And I commiserate all who 
have not already discovered that this is the wrong 
year to be a Democrat. 

We have some solid serious work in front of ns, 
and where a great splendid example has been set I 
like to follow it. I remember that we had a great 
General, who captured Vicksburg. [Cheers.] It was 
a Democratic stronghold. [Laughter.] The same 
distinguished gentleman also captured that solid 
Democratic city, Richmond. He did no hallooing 
over Riclmiond. He did not go into Richmond, any 
more than he did Vicksburg, but he passed right on, 
and made a little inconspicuous place, that never was 
known on the map at all — Appomattox — a place of 
everlasting renown, because there he corraled a 
Democratic town. [Applause.] 

I have observed in the papers a great many gentle- 
men undertaking to diagnose this condition of things, 
seeking here and there for an explanation of Ohio 
and Indiana going Republican. I have a great va- 
riety of reasons for it. First, the Picpublican party 
was absolutely solidified and united, and it was ab- 
solutely right. [Applause.] Next, it has a magnifi- 
cent history, and the otlier party has an absolutely 
infernal and diabolical history. I do not want to 
irritate Democrats here to-night by referring to their 
history. I know the enthusiastic displeasure with 



which thei' listen to the recital. I know if there 
is any thing that will drive the average Democrat 
straight out of a hall it is to read to him his last 
year's platform. [Laughter.] There arc other rea- 
sons-. The manufacturing instincts of this comitry, 
the business instincts, the agricultural instincts, were 
afraid of thV Democratic party. The patriotic in 
stincts that wanted a free ballot and a fan- count were 
afraid of this Democratic party. Let me say right 
here that neither the tariff nor the currency question 
alone gave us thie victory, for deeper down in the 
popular heart than either, solider than business, holier 
than the Si)ring trade, is the sentimental love of that 
blessed o'.d banner— our flag ! [Great applause.] 
Hundreds of thou.sands of men were willing to die 
for it. You can't find anybody, Mr. President, that 
will die for a bank account or a corner lot! Our blessed 
flag, with its stars and stripes and red, white and blue 
symbolizes all that there is noble in politics and glo- 
rious in history to us, [applause,] and we propose to 
wave it until no man stands on any foot of ground 
that cannot think just what he pleases, and vote just 
exactly as he wishes, and there will be none to molest 
or make him afraid. [Applause.] 

Lesson in Democratic Harmony. 

I talk to-night about the Democratic party. I have 
observed in looking o\er their sad and somewhat mel- 
ancholy literature that we are enjoined to be " harmo- 
nious." If there is any thing the average Democrat 
likes it is harmony. [Laughter.] I am in favor of being 
harmonious about some things, but I am opposed to a 
harmonious stufting of the ballot-box, to a harmoni- 
ous false count, to harmonious assassinations and 
midnight raids as agents of political discussion, and 
to harmonious fraud in politics. I am in favor of har- 
monious equality, harmonious and universal enforce- 
ment of the laws and statutes. I know of nothing to 
do with a promise but to keep it, nothing in God's 
heavens to do with a national engagement but to ful- 
fill it. I object to the Democratic party for a great 
variety of reasons. The life of man is limited to sev- 
enty j'ears or thereabout, and you cannot expect me 
to consume that entire time ingoing into details con- 
cerning the record of the Democratic party. [Laugh- 
ter.] I will cursorily leap from one summit to an- 
other as some great peak of criminality presents 
itself, descanting on it briefly, and pass on. 

In the first place, can anybody tell me a promise 
that that party has made in twenty-five years in which 
the cause of good government was interested that it 
has kept ? Will somebody brush up his recollection, 
and refer me to an engagement that that party has 
entered into with the people that it has performed ? 
All along its pathway it is strewn v, ith the skeletons, 
bleached and whitened, of broken pledges and vio- 
lated faith. Tell me any great measure in our poli- 
tics within the last quarter of a century which to-day 
we take pride in recounting, of which we are not 
ashamed, that the party proposed or organized or 



SPEKCH OF EMERY A. STORKS. 



39 



favored? You cannot one? Point mc to a single 
great measuro in the adoption of which we, as a peo- 
ple, are at all proud, that that party has not malig- 
nantly, steadily, persistently, solidly, diabolically, 
demagogically opposed. [Laughter.] Point me to 
a single statute. National or State, looking to the pro- 
tection of the ballot-box against fraud that the party 
proposed. You will have to give it up. There is not 
one of that character that has been enacted and re- 
pealed ^\ here the repeal A\as not effected by a Demo- 
cratic majority. [Applause.] That's a pretty foul 
sort of history. The trouble with it is, it's true ! 

"What Democracy Represents. 

All parties represent some interest. What does 
that part3' represent ? Not the manufacturing inter 
est. They have sought tiie destruction of it since 
1832. It is not the financial interests of the country. 
They would overturn our entire system. Is it the 
educational interest ? [Laughter.] That's a solemn 
question. I grieve to see it treated with so much 
levity. [Laughter.] Is it the moral interest ? As 
representatives of great moral ideas, how does the 
average Democratic procession in the City of New- 
York look ? [Prolonged laughter.] I am constrained 
to think they don't represent any interest. [A Voice 
— " The \\hiskey interest."] My friend is mistaken ; 
that's not an interest. That is a calamity. They 
represent e\'ery single one of the calamities. They 
represent a stuffed ballot-box ; they represent the 
assassination of revenue officers. 

Has there been any change in that party ? If so, 
when did it change ? In the night ? I remember in 
"Western New-York, where I was born, we had a queer 
climate. I ^\ould go to bed at night when I was a 
school-boy, with the sky perfectly clear and the stars 
shining brightly in the hea-\'ens, and I would wake 
up in the morning and find it perfectly clear with 
snow on the ground, and a venerable old gentleman, 
disturbed a little at the frequency of transactions of 
that character, said that he sat up one night until 
about 2 o'clock, when he catched it at it ! [Laugh- 
ter.] Now, I have been sitting up late at night to 
catch this Democratic party at it, but I haven't suc- 
ceeded. [Laughter.] They have all the same leaders 
that they had in 1800. Suppose we run over the list. 
It is an entertaining recital. They had Wade Hamp- 
ton, Robert Toombs, Fort Pillow Forrest, Jefferson 
Davis (hisses) and Ben Hill, in the South in 18U0, 
and haven't they got them now ? They had in the 
North Horatio Seymour, Isaiah Rynders, Samuel J. 
Tilden, and William H. English, of Indiana ; Tom 
Hendricks and Eaton, of Connecticut, and Ben But- 
ler, of Massachusetts, and haven't they got them 
now ? [Laughter.] Has the rank and file changed 
any ? Don't the processions of 1880 look about as 
they did in 1860 ? Of course there has been some 
havoc in the ranks by casualties and delirium tre- 
mens, but they are filled up. [Laughter.] I am told 
you get your Democratic majorities from the toughest 
Wards in this city. Since Tweed has been called to 
his Democratic fathers has there been any essential 
change in the localities where there are large Demo- 
cratic majorities ? I take it not. Has there been any 
change in doctrine ? They have taken great pains in 
1880 to declare : '"We pledge ourselves anew to the 



constitutional doctrines and traditions of the Demo- 
cratic party." I take them at their word, and I'll 
show you by and by what these doctrines and tradi- 
tions are. 

They want a change. So do I. I want a change 
from a Confederate to a loyal Congress, and ^ve■^e 
going to have it. [Applause.] They claim they 
want a reform of the civil service. So do I ; but the 
most important branch of the civil service is Con- 
gress, and I propose to reform it by hustling out every 
Democratic member, and putting a Republican in. 
What situation are they in to demand a change ? lu 
1860 our national credit was so decrepit that we un- 
dertook to effect a little loan of a trivial few millions, 
and the bonds bore interest at 6 per cent., and the 
highest offer that could be got for them was 88 cents 
on a dollar, but in 1880 we are able to dispose of hun- 
dreds of millions of our bonds bearing 4 per cent, in- 
terest, at a premium of 10% per cent. [x\pplause.] 
Now, in 18C0 the Democratic party was in power. 
Our bonds were 88 cents on the dollar, and they were 
opposed to a change. In 1880, when our bonds are 
10% cents more than a dollar, they demand a change! 
In 1880 we have as fine a currency as there is in the 
world, which, like a Republican platform, is current 
everywhere. In 1860 we had " wild-cat" and "red- 
dog," and "stump tail"— the most 'variegated cur- 
rency the world ever saw— like Democratic speeches, 
you ha^■e to change it as you cross the county line, 
[laughter,] and the Democratic party was opposed 
to a change. Now they demand it. Speaking of 
Democratic speeches, I sympathize with the Demo- 
cratic orator who travels much, for Democratic doc- 
trine is a climatic sort of thing, and a speech is affected 
by the temperature in which it is delivered. They liave 
cold water and warm water speeches, and the Demo- 
crat who delivers a cold water speech, as Mr. Bayard 
did — the hardest kind of a hard-money speech — wakes 
up in the morning, after startmg South, to find that 
his Speech won't work. It is disagreeable to have to 
look at the thermometer before the meeting comes 
off to see what kind of a speech you've got to deliver. 
Down in Indiana that speech of Bayard played the 
very mischief, and it did not do any good here. I\Ir. 
Blackburn's orations on the tariff w^ere superb down 
there, but they were desU'uctive in Sandusky, Ohio. 

What Democracy -would Change. 

I find in 1860 we had a foreign trade of $700,000,000, 
and in 1880 of $1,150,000,000 ; but in 18G0 the Demo- 
crats opposed a change, now they demand it. In 1860 
our imports exceeded our exports $20,000,000. lu 
1880 our exports exceed our imports $205,000,000, but 
the Democratic party opposed a change in 1860, and 
they demand a change in 1880. In 1860 we exported 
of wheat 4,000,000 bushels, and in 1880 175,000,000 
bushels ; in 1800, 3,000,000 bushels of corn ; in 1880, 
100,000.000 bushels. In 1860 the Democratic party 
opposed a change, now they demand it. In 1860, of 
rail-road iron we manufactured only 205,000 tons, and 
not a ton of steel, whereas in 1880 we manufactured 
1,113,000 tons ; yet, in 1800, they opposed a change ; 
in 1880 they demand it. The fact is, to-day we stand 
in the midst of a most marvelous prosperity, and the 
glory of it all is that we have earned it. [Applause.] 
It is honest and well deserved. It is the prosperity 
that comes from wise legislation, from honest adnaia- 



40 



SPEECH OF EMERY A. STORES. 



istration, from a steady upholding of the national 
faith, and a steady vindication of the national honor 
and credit. There's no luck about it. I know some 
Democratic orators have ascribed tliese good times 
to Providence. I have different views about the 
Lord. I don't think He interferes directly with 
financial legislation. I think He legislates iu a gene- 
ral way, and, without being at all irreverent, let me 
say to you that you might take the best weather you 
ever saw, and our fields that ache with teeming har- 
vests, and you put fiat money into it, and you could 
not have good times and the Lord altogether. Provi- 
dence would not try to make good times out of any 
such combination. 

The serious difficulty with the Democratic party is 
that if it ever favors the right thing it is at the wrong 
time. Thus, all through the war it was in favor of 
peace. You remember that. [Laughter.] And down 
South,when nobody can think, except to think as they 
think, when no one can speak sa\'e he sjieaks as they 
speak, ^\ hen no man can vote excei^t he votes as they 
vote, then they are in favor of free speech and free 
thought and a free vote. They claim in their plat- 
form that they are in favor of a free ballot, and there 
is something very eloquent in that platform, and it is 
what we have ample time here to-night to discuss, and 
nobody is in a hmry, and I would like to read just 
what they say : 

" The right to a free ballot," the Democratic party 
says, "is a right preservative of all rights, and must 
and shall be maintained in every part of the United 
States." 

In view of the fact that in 1868 they cast a great 
many thousands of fraudulent votes right in this 
town, and counted them, and carried the State by a 
fraud so conspicuous and impudent that nobody 
dares to deny it, the clatter for a " free ballot," and 
the cL.im that itis a " right preservative of all rights," 
and that it "must and shall be maintained in every 
part of the United States," is perhaps the cheekiest 
thing in political liistory. [Applause.] That fraud 
in 1868 constrained the loyal people of this country to 
pass the election laws, so called, and the party that 
now slu-ieks through the country for a free ballot has 
been industriously engaged in an effort to repeal 
those laws. Why? The repeal is not required at the 
South. The gentle agencies of assassination, terror- 
ism, and violence and fraud, have repealed the 
statutes there, but in order that every barrier between 
the vote and fraud might be thrown down, so that by 
fraud New- York City and Brooklyn and Albany, and 
other great cities might give majorities sufficiently 
large to wheel these natui-ally Picpublican States into 
line with the solid South, and for those reasons alone 
was the attempt for the repeal of the election laws 
made, and so eager were they for that repeal that 
they were quite willing to starve the Go\ernment into 
submission, and to affix the repealing clauses to the 
appropriation bills. 

A Terrible Arraignment. 

It was a stupendous swindle, and the party, just 
from that dirty work, just from a scheme so fraudu- 
lent, so expansive and enlarged in its political scoun- 
drelism, gets together in the City of Cincinnati, and 
declares that the right to a free ballot is a right pre- 
eervative of all rights, and must and shall be main- 



tained in all parts of the United States. The same 
party has to-day a solid South. In 1873 the Repub- 
licans cast 90,273 votes in Alabama, and in 1S78 they 
did not cast a vote— not one. Do you suppose that 
that change was made through the marvelous efficacy 
of Mr. Tilden's Literary Bureau ? Was the subtle 
whisperer of Gramercy clothed with power so persua- 
sive that, reaching over mountains and across prairies 
and plains, he converted the negro in six years, and 
the Republicans, so that 00,000 votes in 1372 dwindled 
to nothing in 1878 ? Terrorism did it, fraud did it, 
the false count and the no-count did it, the flaming 
cabin did it, the shot-gun did it, all of which con- 
vinces me that the right to a free ballot is a right 
jireservative of all rights, and must and shall be 
maintained in every part of the United States. 
[Laughter and applause.] 

Now, in 1872 the Republicans cast 41,000 votes in Ar- 
kansas, and in 1878 they cast 115. The shot-gun, ter- 
rorism, fraud, violence, did it, which makes me per- 
fectly certain that the right to a free ballot is a right 
preser\-ative of all rights, and must and shall be 
maintained in every part of the United States. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Now, in 1872, in the State of ]\Iississippi, the Re- 
publicans cast 82,000 odd votes, and in 1878 they cast 
1,168. The shot-gun reduced it ; thebludgeonrcduced 
it ; the gentle ministrations of the White Leaguers 
and the Ku-Klux reduced it ; they act, where a free 
ballot has to be cast, as the old Romans did— they 
make a desert and they call it peace. How quiet it is 
in Mississippi ! How subdued it is in Arkansas ! How 
still it is in Alabama ! How restrained and calm it 
is in South Carolina ! Dixon has been convinced that 
he was wrong ; the argument was a skig fired at him 
in the back. Chisolm has been satisfied that he took 
incorrect views of the ordinance of 1879, and the argu- 
ment ^\•as a body full of bullets. The dead negroes are 
very peaceable. All tliis assures me that the Demo- 
cratic party has struck hard-pau when they declare 
that the right to a free ballot is the right preservative 
of all rights, and must and shall be maintained. 
Now, wonders will never cease with that wonderful 
party. There was an election in Alabama this year. 
The Democratic majority was very enthusiastic. It 
was 92,000—8,000 more than their entire vote. I am 
willing to concede that Mr. Tilden's Literary Biu-eau 
can convert Republicans. I do not believe that it can 
increase the population. [Laughter and applause.] 
Hence you see that the right to a free ballot is a right 
preservative, &c. 

"Where Bayonets Should be 
Used. 

Now, Gen. Hancock has a word to say on this sub- 
ject, and where we come to Gen. Hancock's utter- 
ances we strike something we can or cannot under- 
stand. I premise the reading by saying, that I never 
saw a Democratic Major-General that had not a 
hoiTor of the bayonet. If there is any thing that a 
Democratic Major-General abhors and dislikes it is 
the bayonet. Hence, Major-Gen. Hancock says that 
the bayonet is not a fit instrument for collecting the 
votes of freemen. I do not know about that. [Ap- 
plause.] I am told by experts that the bayonet is not 
r.iuch used in actual warfare, and that Sherman's 
men collected hams with bayonets on their march. 



SPEECH OP EMERY A, STORKS. 



41 



But if the 'ballot of the black men dowoi South cannot 
he collected iu any other way, except on the point of 
a hayonet, and cauuot be put into the ballot-box by 
any other piece of niachmery, I am in favor of em- 
ploying the bayonet for just that purpose. [Loud 
applause.] If the Constitution-loving, law-abiding, 
God-fearing Democratic Inspectors behind the ballot- 
box cannot be brought to a knowledge of the truth 
as it is in the fourteenth and fifteenth constitutional 
amendments in any other way, I would like to have 
them, by the bayonet, punched into a lively apprecia- 
tion of what they mean. 

I have said to you that I thought that this free ballot 
was the supreme question in our politics. It is. The 
majorities in at least five States are disfranchised, 
and you know it and everybody knows it. In half 
this country there is no Republican that can vote as 
he wants to, and you know it and everybody knows 
it. And the organic law has declared that no one 
6hall be deprived of his right to vote by reason of 
color, race or previous condition of servitude, and 
these solemn guarantees are unperformed, and you 
know it, and I think the time has come to perform 
them. [Applause.] I am in favor of the disturbcnce 
then. I am told that we will have trouble. Come 
trouble I I had rather have fifty years of earthquake, 
uproar and eclipse than any more disregard of great 
national engagements. Is there any real trouble 
about it ? I take it not. Those amendments provide 
that Cougress shall have power to enforce the pro- 
visions of those articles by appropriate legislation, 
and Congress judges what is appropriate. What do 
you think would be appropriate ? That kind of legis- 
lation which would meet the truth, would not it ? If 
this guaranteed privilege was interfered with by a 
6hot-gun, I would not think that a hymn-book or a 
psalm or a song or a sermon would be an appropriate 
remedy, but I would say two shot-guns. And if it 
was interfered with by some armed men, I would not 
want any missionary work ; I would meet those gen- 
tlemen with more armed men— even the Army of the 
United States. Coming right to something practical, 
your Chairman has indicated the method— a Republi- 
can Congress, courageous enough to take this great 
wrong right by the horns, enact statutes which will 
clothe the Executive with power to call out the Army 
of the United States to enforce those engagements, 
and a President that will do it when the time conies. • 
[Loud applause.] 

I confess I do not like to think of my country as a 
great, big, bullying, bragging, blustering, flunking 
Nation, that promises largely and does not perform. 
This is not the business of the States or of a State. 
The Republican party, by the organic law, has de- 
clared that we are all citizens of the United States, 
the grandest title that a man ever bore, and it has 
made of jarring States a Nation, and it has made 
that Nation free, and when the poor, trembling black 
man, given by this Nation his freedom, made by this 
Nation a citizen, takes the compact that Nation has 
made with him in liis hand, and comes to the Nation, 
he can properly say, "Here is your engagement, you 
have made it, execute and carry out your contracts 
with me or quit business. [Applause.] 

I like to think of my country sometimes as having 
material shape and form. This great, splendid 
Unicn of ours, so prosperous and so free— its future, 



who can paint it ? Its career, how glorious it has been I 
And I think of this Nation of mine and of yours, 
enthroned away above the clouds, among the stars, 
robed in hor spotless garments, with the star of 
empire glittering on her forehead, hearing the cry of 
the lowest and the weakest and the poorest of her 
citizens, coming down from those glittering emi- 
nences, and with sword and shield taking the tremb- 
ling black man or carpet-bagger by the hand through 
the ranks of his enemies, past his foes, and saying to 
him, "By the loving God, you shall cast an uncon- 
strained ballot !" [Applause.] It is of .such a 
Nation that I love to think ; it is of such a Nation 
that I am proud. 

Perhaps, by this time, you will reach the conclusion 
that I am a stalwart. Why ? I know no degrees in 
Republicanism. There are none. A man is cither a 
Republican or he is not. There are no conservative 
Republicans, or liberal Republicans, or independent 
Republicans now. We are Republicans ! There is 
no free ballot— just a little ; there is no fair— just a 
part of the time ; there is no conservatism in fraud ; 
we don't want any radicalism in WTong. We are 
Republicans. 

Protection of our Industries. 

Our doctrine, and the next doctrine to which I wish 
to address your attention without arguing it, is that 
of protection to our industries. Our party is com- 
mitted to that system by its history and by its plat- 
form. The democratic party is committed in opposi- 
tion to it by its platform and by its history. In its 
platform of 18S0 it declared for a tariff for revenue 
only, and its candidate for the Presidency. General 
Hancock, declared in the most explicit manner his 
adhesion to the platform, and said that the principles 
therein enumerated were those that he had always 
cherished, and which he would maintain in the fu- 
ture. It is but fair that I should give General Han- 
cock the full benefit of his own outpouring on this 
great question ; and at the risk of being somewhat 
tedious I will read to you first his interview-, and nest 
his letter. I have seen political wisdom before now, 
but I never saw a stream of it come rushing with 
such a flood through the bung-hole, as it did In 
this interview. I have seen email bits of wisdom 
drop from the great summits and mountain peaks of 
thought, but when Gen. Hancock was interviewed 
great boulders of wisdom came rushing down. 
[Laughter.] Having read this document several 
times already, I am able to read it to you now 
without emotion. [Laughter.] I will read it as 
gently as possible, in small sections at a time, and 
with notes historical and explanatory, after the man- 
ner of Plutarch. 

The representative of the Paterson (N. J.) Guar- 
dian wished to interview Gen. Hancock. After 
some general conversation, the reporter said : "There 
is one thing. General, I desire to speak about. The 
tariil question is creating a good deal of talk in Pat- 
erson, particularly among manufacturers." Now, I 
should suppose they would " talk " about it if any 
body would. " Now," said the reporter, " how is 
that going to work ?" How is the " talk " going to 
work, or the " question " going to work — which did 
he mean ? Hancock, however, is up to the sugges- 
tion, and he responds in the words and figures fol- 



42 



SPEECH OF EMERY A. STORRS. 



lowing, that is to say : " The question," said the 
General, " cannot affect the manufacturing interests 
in the least." In the name of all that is good, will 
you be good enough to tell me what question can, if 
the tariff question cannot, affect manufacturing 
interests ? Is it foreordination, or justification by 
faith, or immersion, or spriukling, that can affect 
manufacturing interests ? But the General is more 
entertaining as he proceeds : " My election can make 
no difference either one way or the other." As the 
celebrated Mr. Squecrs said, " There's richness for 
you !" If a Democratic Congress should overturn 
our entire protective system, and Gen. Hancock 
should sign the bill, would that make any difference ? 
Would it not make all the difference in the world ? 
It would make just the difference between having 
protection and not having protection. But I go 
along : " The Paterson people need have no anxiety 
whate^-er that I will ever favor any thing that inter- 
feres with the manufacturing and industrial interests 
of the country The tariff is a local question." 

I ^\-as about as much stunned when I read that as I 
would be in a mathematical debate if somebody had 
jumped up and disputed the multiplication table. 
If this is a local question, what is a general question? 
A tariff, for good or ill, affects not only every inter- 
est in this country, but in every other country on the 
face of the g'.obe. But I understand his meaning. I 
catch his idea. He means, it is as local as this 
planet— that it does not affect the solar system gen- 
erally—that it creates no disturbance among the fixed 
stars. In that sense certainly it is a local question, 
being confined merely to the globe on which we live. 
Then, as showing that he imderstands his subject, 
that he speaks by the card, he says : " The same 
question was brought up once in my native place in 
Pennsylvania." Now, if there is any thing in that 
State that they pull up by the hair at all times, it is 
the tariff question. They sit up with it nights ; they 
get up with it early in the morning, and ever since 
1812, every Pennsylvanian. when awake, has talked 
about the tariff. But that is not all. He says " it is 
a matter that the general Government seldom cares 
to interfere with." I ask, who do you suppose does 
interfere with it ? He thinks they fix it up at Harris- 
burg, and after Don Cameron and the General and 
the rest of them have got it fixed, if there is any 
thing unsatisfactory about it, the general Govern- 
ment takes a lick at it. 

Gen. Hancock's Conversion. 

This interview brought about an irrepressible con- 
flict between the Democratic orators and their candi- 
date. Mr. Dorsheimer declares the tariff a destruc- 
tive and not a protective measure. It shows the 
marvelous power of our party as a mere missionary 
concern, that we have converted Gen. Hancock 
within the last three weeks. [Laughter.] He started 
out on the platform with a tariff for revenue only. 
Clouds gathered in the skj-— he had read my speech 
and Mr. Choatc's, he had read the documents emanat- 
ing from the National Committee — and, journeying as 
Paul was, he saw a great light in the sky, and the 
scales fell from his eyes, and he stands forth to-day 
probably the most enthusiastic all-wool, 3-ard-wide 
protectionist on the Continent. [Laughter.] 

Still, that interview was not quite satisfactory, and 



Mr. Randolph got troubled m his mind. In reply to 
him. Gen. Hancock says : ' In my letter of accept- 
ance I expressed my sympathy with our American 
industries. I thought I spoke plainly enough to satisfy 
our Jersey friends." Was he writmg that letter of 
acceptance to our Jersey friends f [Laughter.] He 
spoke quite plainly. He said that the principles 
enumerated in the platform were those that he liad 
always cherished, and that he was going to hold out 
faithful unto the end, and that he would always 
maintain them in the future, and the principles there 
wore "tariff for revenue only." ' I am too sound an 
American," he says, " to defend any departure from 
the general features of a policy that has been largely 
instrumental in building up our indu.stries and guard- 
ing the American from competition of the undcrjiaid 
labor of Europe. If we intend to remain honest and 
pay the public debt, as good people of all parties do, 
and if we mean to administer the functions of gov- 
ernment — [A Voice— Well, we do ! Applause]— then 
we must raise the revenue in some way or other." 

Was there ever a more unseemly lot of slop ? To 
raise the revenue to be honest with ! Raise the 
revenue for good people to be honest with I Raise 
the revenue to administer the functions of Gov- 
ernment with 1 "With a united and harmonious 
country we shall certainly in time pay off the public 
debt, but the necessity for raising money for the 
administration of the Government will continue as 
long as human nature lasts." Not necessarily 1 I 
take issue there. We had human nature before we had 
a tariff. I think we are going to have a human nature 
after we have a tariff. Was there ever any thing in 
our history — to be serious about it — more utterly 
vapid ? Is it not enough to make any man ashamed 
that he is expected to vote for a citizen, otherwise 
distinguished, who has made such a conspicuous and 
clamorous display of his utter inefliciency for the 
position which he seeks f [Applause.] I think that 
Gen. Hancock has swallowed the whole body of 
Democratic history— platform, record and all— in too 
solid a mass to be otherwise than exceedingly injuri- 
ous to his digestion. Have you ever seen a more 
shameful abandonment of creed and doctrine than is 
displayed in these two documents f 

Republicans completing the 
Edifice. 

I shall not discuss the tariff. It is enough to say 
that beliind the Republican party is more than twenty 
years of steady policy of the same character which we 
])ropose to pursue in future. I know what the ReiMib- 
lican party will do. I know what James A. Garfield 
will do, and what, if he died, Chester A. Arthur will 
do. I know they believe in encouraging and maintain- 
ing American industry, and in maintaining our pres- 
ent system of currency. The Republican party took 
the old edifice, of which the Democrats spoke, and re- 
moved from it the decaying timbers of human chattel- 
hood, and replaced them with the fullest guarantee of 
freedom. They found the old walls defaced, slimy all 
over will foul inscriptions. They found its presiding 
genius, not the great Nation that we now worship, but 
a bullying, cruel, blustering, bragging, dirt-eating 
sycophantic genius, carrying the Dred Scott decision 
i-i one hand and the Fugitive Slave law in the other, 
marching, not to the'music of the Union, but to the 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 



43 



mnsic of the chain and the crack of the whip, and the 
baying of the bloodhound, and tlie appealing and im- 
ploring cry of tlie pursued. Thank God, Lincoln was 
our chieftain, and we wiped out all these foul records, 
and we luivc covered thcui with the shining and re- 
splendent record of 4,000,000 of slaves lifted by one 
supreme effort from the night of sa^•agery and chat- 
telhood into the clear day of American citizenship. 
The world witnesses it, and hails and salutes it. 



In this great party, that never made a promise it 
did not keep ; that had crowded, if you count it by 
achievements, a thousand years of plenty into twenty 
years of time ; whose banner is without stain ; tlic 
hosts are gathering to-day, and the old imperial State 
shall lead these great hosts out of the night of the 
past into the free sunshine, up to the topmost heights 
of magnificent victory. [Applause.]— J?'/w?» Vie New- 
York Times, Thursday, October 21, 1880. 



The Address of the Hon. William M, Evarts, in the Broohlyn Academy 
of Music, Wednesday evening, October 20, 1880. 



Mr. Ch.mrmak and Gentlemen op the Young 
Republican Club, Fellow Citizens, Ladies and 
Gentlemen : It would give me great pleasure, as it 
has heretofore, to speak to the citizens of Brooklyn 
under any circumstances when they might do me the 
honor to be willing to listen to me. But, sir, I con- 
fess that the circumstances under which I now ap- 
pear before them, under the auspices of your Club, 
give me greater pleasure, and I meet this welcome 
that is ollered to me simply as your spokesman. 
You are of this community ; you are known to it ; 
you are recognized as young men who feel your dut}- 
to this country of ours, and mean to perform it. 
Your numbers have grown steadily, and are yet to 
increase ; and when on election day, you do your 
duty at the polls, as up to that time you will do it in 
every form of activity among your fellow citizens, 
you will have made your Club an element in the can- 
vass that cannot be overlooked wherever the honors 
and the congratulations of the triumph are bestowed. 
Where but here, where but in your neighboring city 
of New- York, should we expect this display of the 
zeal and animation of the young merchants and the 
young professional men of these great centres of in- 
fluence in the country f In the academic distribution 
it used to be said that to the Juniors belong the labor, 
and to the Seniors the honor. But in this combat 



Perkins' counting-room and bring him here, and if 
he makes any further obiection to coming, take a 
sufficient force to secure his attendance." And Mr. 
Perkins came up, and bowing to the Judge, said that 
he hoped he would be excused ; that he was fitting 
out a ship for the East Indies that day, and it was 
not convenient for him to attend upon the jury, and 
he had sent his fine. "Where did you get the money 
or the means to fit out a ship for the East Indies, 
Mr. Perkins?"' ''Why, sir, you know my position 
and my relations to commerce." "Well," said the 
Chief Justice, "the means to fit out a ship for the 
East Indies you derived from the protection vvliich 
the laws of your country give to you, and your 
prosperity is due to the obedience of the people to 
those laws." [Applause.] "Now," said he, "take 
your seat in the jury-box, Mr. Perkins, and let some- 
body else fit out your ship for the East Indies." 
[Applause.] And so it is, and so it must be. and I 
wish it were true— I wish it were true— that those 
who have received little may love but little, but that 
those who have received much from their country 
must love much. [Applause.] 

What Suffrage consists in. 

And now we are at the eve of an election, and of 



honors never will be bestowed except upon tliose [ an election of President of the United States, and 



who have performed the labor, and if the Seniors 
wish to divide them v.ith the Juniors they must share 
with them the labor in the public service. [Ap- 
plause.] 

A story is told of a great Massachusetts lawyer. 
Chief Justice Parsons, and a scarcely less distin- 
guished merchant of Boston, Thomas H. Perkins, 
which, I think, illustrates the relation of the mer- 
cantile community to the prosperity and public 
service of the country. Chief Justice Parsons and 
Thomas H. Perkins Vvcre among the most eminent 
citizens of Boston, and were intimate friends and 
associates. One day, when Chief Justice Parsons 
was presiding at a jnry trial, the name of Mr. Per- 
kins was called, and the Sheriff deferentially stepped 
up to the bench and, laying dov.n a fifty dollar bill 
before the Judge, said : " Mr. Perkins is particularly 
occupied to-day, and has desired me to present this 
and ask you to excuse l.im." The Chief Justice said 
to the Sheriff : "Did Mr. Perkins K'-n-l tli.-it message 
to this Court;" "Yes." said t!ie Sheriflf. "and he 
hoped you would e.Kcuse him." "Go down to Mr. 



of an election by suffrage which belongs to the 
people. There is no power in this country that docs 
not proceed from suffrage, and there is no authority 
that can be wielded by any citizen who is lifted into 
gi'eat office but what is recognized in him. because 
the free suffrages of the people have conferred the 
honor upon him. And what do wc perceive at this 
election but this most e.xtr.aordinary condition of 
things in this country ?— that all over this free 
country of ours, where loj'alty and honor and duty 
to the Government of the country have been kept 
and preserved, there Is animation, activity, discus- 
sion, spirit, pride, power, everywhere communicated 
and communicable. It is vital in every part, and in 
such a community "cannot but by annihilation die." 
[Applause.] But in one part of this countrj'— alas ! 
severed from the rest by the same lines that divided 
revolt from fidelity to Government— the suffrage is 
dead. There is no discussion, there is no life, there 
is no love, there is no spirit, there is none of that 
movement of the popular heart, that exaltation of 
the popular minds, which belongs to a free people. 



44 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 



For the suffrage there is paralyzed ; the suffrage 
there is subjugated. And wliat is the suffrage, and 
what does its paralysis and what its subjugation mean ? 
Why, a free franchise is not the mere formality of 
the deposit of a vote. It is in its threefold capacity 
the great action of an intelligent, of an animated, of a 
loyal, government-loving people ; and if it lacks 
these attributes, it is no suffrage at all. 

The first of these attributes is, that the suffrage is 
a reflex of the moral and intellectual forces of the 
community, brought to a focus in this election of 
candidates, and the choice between them — and thus 
it is an act of sovereign intelligence and moral up- 
rightness. The second feature is. that it stimulates 
and animates by public discussion the whole region 
of thought of a great people, and so is the greatest 
means and the greatest master of education that is 
free to the whole body of the people. The third 
great attribute is, that it consolidates the great mass 
into a strenuous community filled with interest, filled 
with passions, proud of their liberty, proud that they 
are the masters of the country. It consolidates them 
to the authority which the laws require to be obeyed 
■by this great and strenuous community. It consoli- 
dates them to this authority because they have been 
consolidated, and have taken part in the transaction 
that has lodged the authority oi law in the persons 
of those who have received the suffrage. 

Dangers of a Solid South. 

I need not say to you that if in any large part of 
this community these traits of the suffrage are not 
maintained, are not observed, are not potential— 
whether that portion of the community be reduced to 
obedience to the laws by force or not — they, for the 
time, and until these mischiefs are corrected, arc 
struck out of American life, of American liberty, of 
American Government. [Applause.] And how long 
can that community, thus curtailed, thus impover- 
ished, thus exhausted of the vitality of our institu- 
tions, maintain their freedom ? I speak not now of 
any subject and inferior class that may have these 
dishonors and these contempts visited upon them ; 
but I speak of what are called the ruling class, of 
what is spoken of as the intelligent class, and as in- 
cluding the material interests of that portion of the 
country ; how long can the habit of violence, how 
long can the operations of cruelty, hold sway without 
in turn fastening a reign of terror, step by step, upon 
class after class and man after man f Believe me, no 
portion of the American people can afford to be 
without the life-blood of liberty and of justice, with- 
out itself succumbing in all its parts, in all its classes, 
to a final reign of terror and dominion of force. [Ap- 
plar.se.] 

And how long can the rest of the country tolerate 
this unequal partition of power ? How long can it be 
maintained in this country, that 138 electoral votes 
are taken out of politics and are wielded, not by 
liberty and justice, but by power and oppression ? 
[Applause.] How long can parties rest satisfied with 
peaceful discussions if there is to be thro\\'n down 
into the arena a solid vote, uninfluenced by argu- 
ment, by reason, by interests distributed in the com- 
munity and openly proclaimed through the rest of 
the country ? Whoever sides with this majestic mass 



needs to get only forty-seven votes, and whoever 
dares to oppose it must get 18.i. [Applause.] 

Now, is this free country of suffrage-loving and 
liberty-loving people to be told, that hanging over 
our manifold interests, brooding over our strong pas- 
sion as freemeu, and freedom-lovers, there is to be 
held this threat, that our opponents shall have the 
Go\'enimcnt with 47 votes, and our friends cannot 
get the Government without the 185. [Applause.] 
How long will the right of suffrage be maintained in 
this country of ours if one-fifth of the freemen them- 
selves are only necessary to carry the Pre.'-idency one 
way and four-fifths are necessary to c:;rry it the 
other? Why, if the Emperor of Germany or the Czar 
of Russia wielded only 138 votes in our Electoral 
College of 3G9, and said to this people: "You may 
please yourselves with the equality and freedom of 
suffrage over the rest of the community, but those 
who vote with the Emperor or the Czar need only 47 
votes, and those who vote against him need 185," how 
long would it be before we should see that there is 
not only no freedom in that 47 votes, but there can- 
not be long in the 185. [Applause.] 

Liberty Better than Quiet. 

And now that is the great problem that meets this 
people at the outset, and the alternatives are pre- 
sented to us in the smooth speeches of Democratic 
statesmen and orators: "Why, don't ynu see how 
much easier it would be for you to yield to this wish 
of the South, and have it all peaceful and quiet, and 
give them the 47 votes without making a fuss about 
it? and don't undertake to rage through the country 
and ransack the conscience, the wisdom and the 
virtue of your people, in the hopeless task of getting 
the 185. [Applause.] Just for peace's sake and for 
good neighborhood, and to show that you value the 
repose of the community." [Laughter.] Well, gen 
tlemen, I do not think that if the Czar of Russia or 
the Emperor of Germany wielded those votes, we 
would answer an argument of that kind by favoring 
the repose of this great and proud people at the sacri- 
fice of its liberty and self-respect. [Applause.] I 
think that we will say, whenever that mass of politi- 
cal power is flaunted in our face and brandished over 
our heads, " If you want our liberties, come and take 
them." [Applause.] Come and get your forty-seven 
votes if you can, and we will submit; but we won't 
let you have Indiana, [applause,] which you were 
expecting to roll as a sweet morsel under your tongue; 
[laughter and applause;] and we won't let you have 
Ohio, [applause.] because we like to have the State 
where our candidate lives vote for him. [Applause.] 
And then they say, "Well, but the merchants of New- 
York, the merchants of Brooklyn, they surely won't 
make a fuss about liberty and honor and pride, and 
those sentimental vapors that are good enough for 
the agricultural classes. The merchants, knowing 
where the real interests of society rests, won't mind 
giving up the North to this demand of the South." 

Well, gentlemen, these young people of the Repub- 
lican Club have made up their minds, I believe, that 
so far as depends upon them, the vote of New-Y^ork 
shall not be surrendered to the consolidated South. 
[Loud applause.] These Southerners seem to think 
of the commercial classes somewhat as the great Lord 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 



45 



Chatham is said, in one of his most tremendous fiil- 
minations in Great Britain, at the time of our ad- 
vancing revolution, to have spoken of the mercliants 
of England. Now, Lord Chatham was a great friend 
of liberty and a great friend of America. He had 
dared to say, in the British Parliament, "I rejoice 
that America has resisted. Three millions of Whigs, 
with arms in their hands, cannot be put down by any 
force yon can send against them." [Applause.] And 
when the commercial classes in England at that day 
wanted peace and repose, and trade in tea and other 
articles of consumption, and had ventured to throw 
themselves against Lord Chatham and against our 
liberty, what did Lord Chatham say? " Tell me not 
of the merchant. His counting-house is his t-emple ; 
his desk is his altar ; his ledger is his Bible, and 
money is his God." [Applause.] 

Now, when the South, with arms in their hands, 
spoke to the merchants of New-York and Brooklyn, 
what answer did the merchants of New-Yorlv and 
Brooklyn make ? They went to their ledgers and laid 
them on the altar of the country. They marked off 
one-half of their mercantile fortunes as lost by the 
rebellion of the South, and they carried the other 
half to the credit of the Government of the United 
States, to be drawn upon. [Applause.] And you 
may remember that it was then said of the merchants 
of New- York, that they sold their goods but not their 
principles. [Applause.] And now I am glad to know 
that old merchants and young merchants propose to 
take then- places in the great jury-box that is now 
listening to argument, and, in November, is to give a 
verdict and to say, if necessary, " let other people fit 
out ships to the East Indies." [Applause.] 

What the Solidarity of the 
South Means. 

No, gentlemen, the people of this country have 
made up their minds that the answer to a " Solid 
South" is not, in any sense in which the South is 
solid, a "Solid North," but a deliberate, a manly, a 
persistent, a noble, a courageous eCort to bring out 
the vote of this people, to maintain the suffrage all 
over this laud. [Applause.] There is not the least 
objection to a solid vote for a candidate on one side 
or the other. There is no objection to Vermont, for 
instance, voting forever and forever on the right 
side. [Applause.] There has not been any great 
objection, except a moral one, to Indiana voting ever 
and again on the wrong side ; but it was not a solid 
vote in the sense that the suffrage was suppressed 
and something else took its place. We are not ac- 
customed to a report of the suffrage which brings in 
all the votes cast as being a majority of one party. 
[Laughter.] That we do not call an election, and the 
true phrase for the South is its solidarity. And let 
me read you the definition by Dr. Trench, the accom- 
plished ^^Jxhbishop of Dublin, who understands well 
the use of language, as to what this word solidarity 
means and where it comes from. Saj-s Dr. Trench 
of solidarity : " A word \\ hich we owe to the French 
Communists, and which signifies a community of 
gain and loss, in honor and dishonor, a being, so to 
speak, all in the same bottom." 

And that is what the solidarity of the South means. 
They are ail in one bottom of honor and dishonor, of 



gain and loss. It is a cumulating, an aggregating, an 
iron-bound mass, from which every symptom of life 
in the suffrage has been expelled. And now, when- 
ever they bring in the vote, and they find that the 
population have voted ; and whenever they count the 
vote, and whenever they go through the sum in sub- 
traction of taking the minority from the majority, 
and they have reported the vote against the Republi- 
can party, and in every one of the fifteen States — 
why, it is American suffrage, and we will submit to 
it ! Whenever all the blacks, to whom we have given 
liberty, vote against liberty, we will submit to this 
wound, even in the house of our friends ; but until 
that vote is taken we insist upon all the powers of 
the American people under the laws and the Consti- 
tution — all the moral and intellectual forces, all the 
pride in our institutions, all our duties as American 
citizens urging us one way ; that we meet that 
solidarity of vote as now presented by solidity of 
moral and intellectual force, and of free suffrage that 
will destroy it forever as an agent and factor in Ameri- 
can politics. [Applause.] 

No Longer Propitiating the 
South. 

Capt. Cook tells ns in one of his voyages that in 
one of the South Sea Islands he found a race that 
had a peculiar idea of divinity ; that they had a be- 
lief, to be sure, in a good God, and that it was the 
most powerful of the spirits, yet they recognized a 
devil also, and offered all their sacrifices to him. 
For they said : ' The good God, of his oym good- 
ness, will do what is right by us, but it is our busi- 
ness to propitiate this devil by the sacrifice of all that 
is dear to us." And now the Democratic orators and 
statesmen seem to think that Providence is on our 
side, and that this good and great, intelligent, free 
and manly community of the North would always do 
about what is right, and therefore the way is to propiti- 
ate this unmannerly — I use no harsher word — this un- 
mannerly mass of our Southern fellow citizens. 
Well, we tried it before, the war, and how many of 
our great statesmen went down to the grave with their 
heads bowed in shame ! how many of the women of 
the land, how many of the Christian people, how 
many of the youth, suffered grief unutterable! How 
has all the land suffered for the shame of 
slavery ! And then, when resistance in that same 
solidarity of slavery was raised by the vote and by 
arms, how many of our youth, how much of our 
treasure, did we sacrifice ? But then, thank God, it 
w;>s no longer in propitiation, but in a determination 
to destroy the enemies of American liberty. [Loud 
applause.] And now the appeal to the evil spirit 
that suppressed the suffrage no longer is heard by 
patient ears. If in Indiana they won't endure it, do 
you think they will endure it in Connecticut, in New- 
Jersey and in New-York. [Applause.] The whole 
stress of the battle finally rests upon us. The eyes 
of the whole country are concentrated here. Here is 
the trial, here in your own midst, here in the City of 
New- York. All the rest have spoken a tone not to 
be misunderstood. Does any body doubt how the 
State of New- York, outside of these great cities, 
feels and thinks, and how it will act ? Does any body 
doubt that a hundred thousand m:ijority of the free 



46 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 



people of New-York State, outside of these great 
cities, are ranged with New-England, and the North- 
west, and Pennsylvania, and Indiana, [cheers.] and 
Ohio, and arc saying with one voice, " We will sub- 
mit to no such oppression any more ? " 

Well, now, it is said that there will be 100,000 ma- 
jority in these two great cities, coun ten-ailing the free 
people of the rest of the State, and ranging us as the 
only State of the North on the side of this solidarity of 
the South. Why, gentlemen, who are to do it? Wc, 
ourselves, if it is done at all. Do you believe that the 
mass of this community, of your city, of which this 
is in numbiTs but a feeble representative, great as it 
is, but which in spirit and in work is the representa- 
tive of the sober thought and manhood, education, 
monility and religion of the City of Brooklj-n— do 
you believe that they can be stamped out as an incon- 
siderable item and crushed in a majority thr.t will 
not make them worth counting? Not if they do 
their duty from now till November— not if they swear 
they will not leave this jury-box until the verdict is 
rendered for the right. [Applause.] 

Choice Bits of Southern 
Oratory. 

Now, some of the Democratic statesmen and ora- 
tors have the advantage of making speeches at both 
ends of this country. Some of the Southern gentle- 
men we have heard, and they have w-ept at the corners 
of the streets and wiped their eyes in the newspapers 
[laughter] at the great dangers of oppressions to the 
suffi-age of Brooklyn and in New- York. They seem 
to think that our adopted fellow-citizens do not have 
any chance in either of these cities [laughter] — that 
they are " put upon "' [laughter], hustled at the polls, 
prevented from recording their votes, do not have 
their votes counted ; and if any of them are set up 
foi public office they are shot, I suppose in the back. 
[Laughter.] We have not perceived anything of that 
kind. I do not think that there are any of our Irish 
fellow-citizens either in your city or New- York that 
have ever complained that they did not have a fair 
share of the offices. I have never heard of any up- 
rising on the part of our German fellow-citizens, be- 
cause their Irish friends did not have a fair chance 
at the offices. [Laughter.] And I have never heard 
of any very general complaint among the native 
American population that injustice was done to our 
Irish fellow-citizens. I know that in ourcity of New- 
York three principal officers at the disposal of the local 
community — the Mayor, the Recorder and the Comp- 
troller — are all able, excellent and spirited Irish fel- 
low-citizens of ours in the ticket that they are pro- 
posing for the November election. And yet these 
Southern gentlemen in convention, by their votes, and 
in their speeches here, are greatly distressed lest this 
class in our community should not have a fair 
chance 1 

Now, one of the most intelligent and one of the 
abk>t of the statesmen of the Democratic party, our 
friend, the distinguished Senator from Delaware, of 
whom so many people in New-York and in Brooklyn 
justly have such a high opinion, and for whom they 
feel a great regard, and whose disappointment at his 
failure to receive the nomination was conspicuous. 

and justly so, in their complaints, made a speech 



down in South Carolina, and he came np to New- 
York and gave us an account of what he saw down 
in South Carolina. He didn't say anything in South 
Carolina about the enormity of depriving the people 
of their votes, not a word. But he did talk about the 
great fraud that had been committed four years ago 
in the electoral count for the President, and he wished 
that ^^sited with condemnation. He also spoke of 
the great duty of the Democratic party to see that 
marshals at the polls do not deprive the people of the 
right to vote once, and that soldiers are not so thick 
about the polls as to deprive the people of that right, 
which is preservative of all rights— the Democratic 
platform says — the freedom of the sullrage. He said 
that he attended a Hancock meeting down there. 
There was a great number of men standing around 
on horseback, with red shirts, the most harmless and 
peaceable people in the world, for all the world just 
like the yeomanry of New-England and New- York 
and Pennsylvania. Well, that is new to the yeomanry 
at the North, that they are just like the red-shirted 
people of the South. 

And then the blacks that he saw attending that 
Hancock meeting, why they looked cheerful and 
peaceable and cjuiet, not deprived of a single vote, and 
he talked with them. They came from a distance, 
some astride of horses and some astride of mules, and 
they even owned the animals on which they rode. 
Well, this is the evidence of an eye-witness that, in a 
Hancock meeting, the blacks that voted the Hancock 
ticket and the red-shirters were in perfect harmony, 
and all went smooth and merry as a marriage bell. 
[Applause.] And he would have you argue that as the 
Republicans are a quieter and more peaceable people, 
by so much greater reason a Republican meeting 
dov.Ti there would have been even more quiet and 
more peaceful. 

Now, in his own State of Delaware, in liis own City 
of Wilmington, the other day, he made a speech, and 
he took up this subject of the freedom of the sufirage, 
and see what noble sentiments he utters, and how 
deeply he feels it. He said : 

The question for each man to answer is simply, how 
shall the vote of each, that the laws of the land have 
given to him, be cast in November ? It ought to be 
cast just as its owner desires it should be ; and if 
every man is true to himself it can be so cast. No 
man has the power, in this country, to control an- 
other man's vote, if the voter will but do his duty. 
It is not merely a man's duty to cast his free and un- 
trammelled ballot, but it is his high privilege to ex- 
ercise that privilege as the dignified duty of a free- 
man. To unresistingly allow another to rob him of 
it is to exhibit the disgraceful qualities of a coward. 
When any one seeks to control the vote of anotlier by 
any other than the legitimate means of argument he 
goes beyond the spirit of an American citizen, and 
exhibits the spirit of a tyrant. 

Now why didn't he make that speech down in 
South Carolina ? [Applause and laughter.] 

But in Wilmington he had heard that there was 
such an excitement on the question of labor that 
Democrats thought really of voting against the Demo- 
cratic ticket ; and he thought that ought to be put a 
stop to, and that the oppression and intimidation and 
suppression of the suffrage that the people of the 
North were threatening to practice ought to be re- 



SPEECH OF WIIXIASI M. EVARTS. 



47 



sistefl, for any man who attempted it was a tjTant. 
Auft yet all over the South the rule is ostracism- 
social ostracism— for the whites and exclusion from 
patronage and from livelihood of the blacks who 
vote the Republican ticket. Why didn't lie make 
his speech in South Carolina * Probably the red- 
shirt men would not hnve been as peaceable as the 
Northern yeoman. [Applause.] 

Well, I don't know how people can go around this 
country with a grave face t<ilkiug in this way. 
Whenever I hear such a speech as that at the North, 
from a Dem<x;ratic statesman, somehow or other I 
expect to see the screen that he would hold up be- 
tween you and his Southern allies fall to the floor, 
and disclose that Southern virago, •' the little French 
Alilliuer"— the Ladi/ Teazle oi this comedy of "De- 
mocracy" behind the screen— [applause and laugh- 
ter]— with a tuuic— she is in full dress, of course— with 
a tunic cut in the fashion of a red shirt, with a jupon 
w^hose warp and woof are the principles of Lee and 
Stonewall Jackson, with a scarlet overskirt and a 
deep black fringe— in bullion, I think the ladies call 
jt_of the murders of Hambui-g, Yazoo and Kemper 
County. 

Let us have a fair understanding with our public 
men ; let them have none of these noble suntimeuts 
so much out of place. 

Shall the Present Prosperity- 
Continue? 

Well, gentlemen, this country is in abundant pros- 
perity in i.U corners of the land. North, South, East 
and West ; and a people in potisession of these great 
blassings of civilization and Christianity, of these 
magnificent fruits of their Government and the prin- 
ciples on which it rests, are called upon to cast their 
suffrage for the continuance of that rule that has 
brought it about, or for the reversal of that rule and 
the chances of what may follow. 

I see that a very intelligent \mter on Political 
Economy, ?.Ir. Atkinson, of Boston, in counting with 
great gratification, .is we all do, the magnificence of 
the cotton crop— five millions of bales and odd— says 
that this shows that labor has its reward.s iu the 
South, and that violence is not the general rule. 
The general rule ? Why we didn't suppose they shot 
all the people at the South. [Laughter.] We should 
have very little trouble in the suffrage if that was so ; 
M e should have it all one w ay. But I cannot tolerate 
this method of talking about the rights of our South- 
ern friends. Not the general rule ? Why, who made 
all this cotton J The black Republicans did the 
work and the white Democrats have the politics. 
Good heavens \ do you suppose^ if the yeomamy of 
the North had made a crop of five million bales of 
cotton, that it would be considered a most grateful 
and agreeable fact to notice that they owned the ani- 
mals on which they rode, [Laughter.] Why, they 
would own the farms [applause] as they would own 
the cotton, and they would own the fruits of their 
labor. But the truth is, the South is divided into 
three classes ; Those who labor, a-ad they are Repub- 
licans ; those who make politics, and they arc Demo- 
cratic statesmen; and a large class intermediate, 
that abhors labor and adores politics. [Laughter.] 
So the Republican blacks pick all the cotton of the 



Democratic whites, and the Democratic whites pick 
all the votus of tlic Republican blacks. [Loud 
laughter and long applause.] 

Now, gentlemen, we must talk plainly of and to 
the.<e countrynu'n of oiii-s. To take the political 
strength in Congress and in the Electoral Colleges 
which makes this arduous concentration and aggre- 
gation in the free parts of the country and overcome 
it — to take those votes, and then take from the blacks, 
to whom they were counted out, per capUa, as it 
were — to take the suffrage from them, cannot be 
respectable in the contemplation of God or man. 
[Applause.] All the reasoning about it, all the 
rhetoric, all the screens in the world, cannot hide 
that ghastly fact, that a great mass of our country- 
men takes the power, in comparing suffrage with you, 
that was meant for the blacks, and robs them, who 
would \ote with you, of being counted in the suffrage. 
As Junius said of certain unworthy characters in 
English politics: "Such conduct can never escape 
censure except when it escapes observation." [Ap- 
plause.] I think the sober judgment of the people 
of this country — yes, I think the sober judgment of a 
great jwrtion of the white people of the South takes 
precisely the same view of that transaction that I 
have submitted to you ; and I beg of you, by your 
manhood, and your firmness and your solidity, to 
help this recurrence of honor and duty and pride in 
the Southern people, so that it shall not be trampled 
out by your surrender to the pretensions of the 
solidarity of the South. [Loud applause.] 

But now what about this pretence that, as it is not 
a general rule that violence is offered, therefore it is 
unbecoming in us to make so much ado about the 
instances in which these rights are suppressed and 
this violence is exhibited. What is the measure of 
it? As MercuHo said of his wound : " It is not as 
wide as a church door ; it is not as deep as a well, 
but as the life-blood flows from it, it will do ; it will 
do." There is enough of exhibition, and enough of 
perpetration to answer the purpose of su]>pressing 
the wound and reducing the solidity of the South. 
It will do ; it will do. Hume, having once \\Tittcn a 
treatise which brought upon him the condemnation 
of the religious portion of the English people, com- 
plained bitterly that he was visited with so much 
vituperative criticism when he had only written one 
bad treatise, and had written so many good works ; 
to which a gentleman engaged in the conversation 
said to him: "Why, Mr. Hume, your reasoning is 
like that of the French notary, who, when he had 
been detected in a forgery and was sent to the 
galleys for it, thought it very hard that a man that 
had written so many genuine signatures should be 
punished for one forgery." [Laughter.] 

But, as I have said, the country is prosperous, and 
I think I may be permitted to add, that the Republi- 
can administration now present to the observation of 
the people, and in the sight of whose conduct of 
affairs the people are to determine whether their 
servants shall be changed and another party put in 
possession of a lease of power— I think I may be 
permitted to say, that the actual conduct of the 
affairs of the country is irreproachable. [Great ap- 
plau.se.] I have not hoard any Democratic criticism 
of this administration or of the present conduct of 
affairs. And yet I submit to you that the real issue 



48 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVART8. 



before an intelligent people, abounding in prosperity 
and having no fault to find with the conduct of affairs, 
is really this and no wider : Do you wish for the next 
four years that the affairs of this country should be 
carried on as they have been for the last four years ? 
[Applause.] 

I have observed some criticism, to be sure, when 
attacks are made upon the Republican party in the 
way that these statesmen and orators — and within 
their right — make, not of the actual conduct of 
affairs, but of the past and of the party, A com- 
plaint is made that the principal officers of the 
Government should find it their duty to speak to 
their fellow-citizens of the States in which they live 
of the facts and of the nature of the prospects of the 
issue that is before them. I never have known yet in 
any of the experience of English politics, or in any 
of the experience of ours, that when the question 
was between a party in administration and a party in 
opposition seeking power, there was not a right to 
canvass the question on one side as well as on the 
other. [Applause.] I am ready to account for any 
right that I may exercise whenever the citizens of 
New- York or the citizens of Brooklyn are ready to 
do me the honor to listen to what I have to say. 
[Applause.] 

A Democratic Suggestion 
Answered. 

You will observe that theoretic politics, dogmas, 
historic points, to an intelligent, manly people like 
ours, cease to have an interest when the present issue 
is one of the simple nature that I have explained to 
you. Our people know whether they like the ad- 
ministration of affairs as now exhibited by the party 
in power. They know whether they are pleased with 
the harvest of this sowing, of this culture ; and as 
to such a question, thus rigidly observed, there can 
be no answer unless the people have lost their senses. 

Our Democratic friends are fond of saying, " Oh, if 
you had only renominated President Ilaycs we should 
not have been able to make any headway against 
him. When the country is so prosperous and he is so 
upright and he is so considerate of the rights of ail- 
when he loves the whole country and serves the whole 
country, it would be ungrateful for the Democratic 
part of our fellow citizens not to recognize Hayes' 
Administration as worthy of their praise." Well, 
gentlemen, supposing that the identical shape of the 
canvass is not the presentation of his claim, I ask 
the Republicans— I ask the Democrats— of the 
country, which is nearest like him, and which 
promises more nearly to follow in the path that he 
has trod, of this prosperity — James A. Garfield [im- 
mense applause and repeated cheering] and the Re- 
publican party behind him, and the solid North be- 
hind it, or General Hancock and the Democratic 
party behind him, with the solid South behind it ? 

Well, there may be some force in the suggestion 
that the Democratic party could not stand against 
the rcnominatiou of President Hayes, but I think 
they will find that they cannot stand against the 
nomination of James A. Garfield. [Great applause.] 
Among the curses denounced by divine authority 
against the people of Israel, if they should swerve 
from the right path and from their duty to their God, 



was this, that, in war, they should go cut in one way 
against their enemy and should flee in seven ways. 
It seems to me, if I can look over the field of battle, 
that the Democratic party has come out one way 
against the Republican party behind Gen. Hancock, 
and is now fleeing seven ways. [Applause.] And so 
near a route has it become that all the leaders of the 
different arras of the service, so far as I can see, are 
firing into one another. [Applause and laughter.] 

Well, gentlemen, as the Democrats will insist 
upon getting away from this issue and going back a 
little ways into history, what are the grievances ? 
Why is the South solid against the prosperity of the 
country and the party that has produced it ? Why 
is it ? And what answer do you get ? What answer 
do you get that does not go back to the memories 
and the resentments of the war that was waged 
against this Union — that does not go back to the 
grievances in the processes of reconstruction ; that 
does not go back to the retaliation and the reaction 
that wishes to jilace in power the same party, under 
the same load and with the same make-up in which 
it was driven from power. And yet, and yet \\hen 
they go back, if they will go back, to the source, to 
the cau.se, to the responsibility and to the guilt which 
has produced all these disturbances, all these obliga- 
tions and all these disasters to them and to us, they 
say it is a cruel recalling of the issues of the war. 
But if they go back to the halting or the stumbling 
or the en-ors in this grievous process of reconstruc- 
tion, why that is nothing but becoming self-respect. 
But I have looked in vain for an identification of the 
mischief that induced this solidarity, and I find that 
the only thing a man can put his finger on is pre- 
sented by a very intelligent statesman of Virginia 
and by Gen. Hampton, in a speech which he made in 
the streets of New-York, that when in 1866, I think 
it was in Virginia and in some of the more Southern 
States, they chose a very intelligent, a very patriotic 
and a very respectable body of old Whigs and sPnt 
them to Congress, Congress refused to receive them ; 
and that justifies the solidarity of the South until 
they have put their foot on our necks and restored 
themselves as they were before the war. [Applause.] 

The Statesnianship of the 
Plough. 

But there is one argument which they have to 
parry, the prosperity of the country, and that is by 
ascribing it all to Providence ; and there is a phrase 
which Governor Seymour has produced, and which 
Mr. Bayard has applauded in one of his speeches, 
that it was not the statesmanship of the Republican 
party that did all these great things for the puljlic 
credit, for the public honor and for the public 
prosperity, but it is what Governor Seymour calls the 
statesmanship of the plough. Well, let us choose the 
plough as President. [Laughter and applause.] There 
were ploughs in this country before this prosperity 
came, and there was not any statesmanship in the 
plough then. But what speeds the plough ? What 
stops it from rusting in the f .■.irow, or the crops from 
rotting in the field ? What, but that step by step the 
Republican party paciflxl the South at the outset of 
its administration, and has restored the public credit, 
has reduced the public burdens and has made a de- 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVARTS. 



49 



mand for the crops that the plough produces. This 
is the part that statesmanship plays ; and the plough 
might slumber under the disasters of an administra- 
tion that might follow just as the plough slumbered 
before we had unsnarled our finances and reduced 
our burden of troubles that the great war had brought 
upon us. 

Chief Justice Chase used to delight in telling a 
story of a journey he made, ^vhen a young man, in 
going to Cincinnati to establish himself in life, and 
passing through the magnificent scenery in the upper 
part of Virginia. As the passengers waked up in 
the morning, after their night's sleep, and looked out 
upon it, a gentleman mentioned, "Why, just here is 
the birthplace of Patrick Henry." And Mr. Chase, 
fresh from college and full of enthusiasm, broke out 
in a rhapsody — "' How could he fail to have had that 
magnificent gift of eloquence, that genius of liberty, 
when he was born in the midst of this magnificent 
scenery, that would inspire any one with those gifts." 
The Chief Justice said that a sober and respectable 
gentleman spoke to him from another seat in the 
stage, and said : "Young man, this scenery has been 
here ever since Patrick Henry was born, and there 
haven't been any more Patrick Henrys since." 
[Laughter.] And I think this statesmanship of the 
plough that pleases our Democratic friends is very 
like the genius and eloquence being the production 
of the magnificent scenery of Virginia. 

Now, I think I have never heard that it was wise 
for a people to wish to change their rulers upon tlie 
single argument that Providence seems to have 
been on their side. [Laughter.] I do not think that 
that by itself is a good reason for trying somebody 
else that peradventure Providence might not be on 
the side of. [Laughter.] But it is the only argument 
that I have heard brought forward by our Democratic 
friends against giving the Republican party the re- 
newal of power that belongs to the party that has 
carried the country through uuheard of disaster.and 
brought it out to unexampled prosperity. [Loud ap- 
plause.] I think that the American people would 
rather keep this prosperity in the hands of the Repub- 
lican party and Providence, rather than give it into 
the hands of the Democratic party and take their 
chance of what Providence might do. [Laughter 
and applause.] I know there is one bitter curse 
denounced upon that people that calls evil good, and 
good evil, and I have heard from no side, except the 
Democratic, any praise of the abominable oppressions 
that are practiced in a large part of this country. 

A Party and a Candidate that 
"Don't Know." 

Well, gentlemen, the Democratic party, having 
been np for exammation several times during the 
last twenty years, [laughter,] has now presented itself 
once mcjre. You may have seen the story of the 
schoolmaster down in Texas v.ho ofliered himself for 
the examination of the school board, to be trusted 
with the charge of the education of the young people 
of the neighborhood. Well, he had got all the po- 
litical divisions of the world by the ears, had thrown 
the multiplication table into confusion, and the solar 
system into absolute disorJ.er and destruction by Cia 
answers that he made, and he was rejected. Eut he 



prevailed upon the kind-hearted board to give him a, 
chance at another examination, and he was rejected 
again. His friends said to him. " Why, you didn't 
pass this time!" "No," says he " how could I ? 
They asked me the same questions as before." 
[Roars of laughter.] And that is the disastrous po- 
sition of the Democratic party is in now. People 
have asked them the same questions as they did 
four years ago, and eight years ago, and twelve 
years ago, and sixteen years ago ; how can 
they reply satisfactorily when they are asked 
the same questions every time. [Laughter.] Here- 
after let me advise them to follow the example of a 
student in a certain academic examination. He was 
coming out, looking, as we called it in those days, 
' badly plucked,'" and was asked by his classmates 
how he had fared. " Fared ? " says he, " I didn't 
pass at all, and yet I answered every question cor- 
rectly ; and they asked me a great many questions." 
" Why, how could that be, that you didn't pass the 
examination if you answered every question cor- 
rectly?" "Why," he replied, " to every question 
they asked me I answered that I didn't know." 
[Laughter.] 

Now, I think that when General Hancock is asked 
what he thinks about the war claims, he had better 
answer that he don't know ; what he thinks about 
suilrage at the South — whether it is likely to be be- 
friended at all, or any good come out of it — that he 
don't know ; and when he is asked about the tariff 
question — [laughter] — that he don't know. He has 
answered, not in those words, but in a manner that 
his countrymen, under a charitable construction of 
his answer, have considered as equivalent to saying 
it. [Applause.] 

Parties and Candidates on the 
Tariff. 

Well, now that we are on this subject of "exami- 
nations," let us see. The subject of examination was 
the platforms of the two parties on the subject of 
the taiill. The Democratic party said in 1876 : " We 
demand that all custom-house taxation shall be only 
for revenue ; " in 1880, "A tariff for revenue only." 
The Republican platform ot ISSO says that the reviv- 
ing industries should be further promoted, and that 
the commerce, already so great, should be steadily 
encouraged. We aflirm the belief avowed in 1376, 
that the duties levied for the purpose of revenue 
should so discriminate as to favor American labor. 
[Applause.] 

Gen. Hancock, in passing the examination on the 
Democratic platform, answers : " The principles 
enumerated by the Convention are those I have 
cherished in the past and shall endeavor to maintain 
in the future." [Laughter.] Garfield says in refer- 
ence to our customs laws : " A policy should be pur- 
sued which will bring revenues to the treasury, and 
will enable the labor and capital employed in our 
great industries to compete fairly in our own markets 
with the labor and capital of foreign producers." 
■\Ve legislate for the people of the United States and 
not for the whole world, and it is our glory that the 
American laborer is more intelligent and better paid 
than his foreign competitor. [Applause.] 

Now, Gen. Hancock, when informed that his 



50 



SPEECH OF WILLIAM M. EVAKTS. 



countrj-men were nearly interested in this question 
of whether American labor was to be panperized or 
not, and that there was an impression that the Demo- 
cratic party had declared for a well-known principle 
and a well understood principle, says that there 
should not be the swerving of a hair's breadth to the 
right or to the left in the laying of customs, but that 
the most money from the largest importations and 
the largest gains on the skilled labor imported from 
abroad was to be the rule of the American people. 
Does anybody ever hear of revenue increasing on tlie 
mere principle of the lowest rate that will bring in 
revenue that docs not flood the market with foreign 
goods ? That is an intelligible principle ; it has been 
understood for fifty years. Well, now, Gen. Han- 
cock says, ha\ing had an interview ^\ith a Paterson 
editor [laughter] — which Governor Randolph didn't 
think did him justice, but which has not been re- 
tracted, as far as I can discover — he said that it Avas 
in-v-ain to think that anything that the Federal Govern- 
ment could do about a tarifl: would affect the indus- 
tries of the country ; that it was a local issue, came 
up about once in a half a century in Pennsylvania, 
and that it was all right. He was astonished that 
anybody should be so stupid as to suppose that it 
was of any consequence what the opinions of the 
candidate for the Presidency were on the subject of 
the tariff. [Much laughter.] And then, when that 
was not quite satisfactory to his intelligent country- 
men, toamany of them being stupid, I suppose, he 
comes out with the saying that he is too sound an 
American to ever have it supposed that he would do 
anything that did not help and favor American in- 
dustry in comparison with industry abroad. 

But the people say, " What we wanted was not to 
know whether you are too sound an American to 
have that opinion, because that is the very question 
that we are going to determine — whether you are loo 
sound an American — what we wanted was to know 
whether you were, as Garfield is, for a system of 
duties that will protect the dignity of American 
labor as a more intelligent body, and betterpaid than 
foreign labor ? " [Applause.] " If you will tell us 
that," say the laborers all o\-er this country, " then 
we will know whether to vote for you or not." Well, 
having the war claims all right, he entertains the 
new that nothing can be done to hurt the North, 
that the suffrage is to be protected to the extent of a 
" free ballot, a full vote and a fair count," all over 
the country. And now, having said that he is " too 
sound an American," what is there left to under- 
value American labor, what is there left for him but 
to write one more letter, [laughter and applause,] 
and address it to Mr. English, of Indiana, [laughter,] 
conceived somewhat in this way : 

Mt Dear Sir, — There seems to be an impression 
prevailing in the minds of some of our countrymen 
that I am running on the same ticket with you. 
[Laughter and applause.] I am astonished that any- 
body should give credit to sucli a bugbear. [Lp.v.gh- 
ter.] For myself, I denounce it. There also seems to 
be an impression that I am running on the Demo- 
cratic platform. I am too sound an American to do 
that — and this is the last letter that I shall write, 
[laughter,] and not only is this the last letter that I 
shall write, but the last that I was ever expected to 
write. [Uproarious laughter.] 



The truth is that when a man in the public gaze of 
the whole country slant's upon a platform, and 
plank after plank of it breaks down, so that there is 
not a wide enough spot in it to stand upon except on 
one leg, it gets to be lery nksome and very awkward. 
It is true yon can shift from one leg to the other, 
[laughter,] but still it is not graceful and it is very 
tiresome. [Great laughter.] Then come down from 
the platform ! Come down from the candidacy, and 
let us have the return of the votes all for General 
Garfield and the Republican ticket. [Hearty ap- 
plause.] 

Manhood of the American 
Laborer. 

Now, gentlemen, there are a great many things in 
this country that are of interest to the people of it, and 
among other things of great interest to the people of 
this country is the question of the labor of the 
country. The labor of the country holds in i(s hand, 
by the gift of the suffrage, the political power of the 
country — that is to say, in that part of the country 
where the laborers are allowed to vote. Starting as \\e 
did, a poor, sparse people, without great inequalities 
of rank, we put suffrage upon maiJiood, and said 
that the man is greater than his cii'cumstances or his 
property. Pericles had some such idea about a man, 
when he advised the young women of Athens to 
uiarry a man without an estate rather than an estate 
without a man. [Laughter and applause.] I ti.ink 
the ladies of this country have generally follovvcd 
that advice — partly, perhaps, because there are more 
men than there are estates. [Laughter.] But, never- 
theless, that is our proposition ; and the laws of this 
country are intended to preserve the dignity of labors 
The South never desired the dignity of labor to be 
presen-ed under the old system — I do not see that 
they have much care to preserve its dignity under the 
new. But in this country of ours, where intelligence 
and thrift and domestic virtue and personal pride are 
just as generally and just as clearly the possession of 
the laboring men as tliey are of the learned and the 
powerful and the rich, no peace, no prosperity can 
exist if we undertake to put our labor in the system 
of the world upon the level of the labor of countries 
where its dignity and its political power are not 
accorded. [Applause.] Any party, any people, in 
this country that underhvke to say that upon the 
mere economic question of whether a broadcloth 
coat for a gentleman, or a Worth dress for a lady, 
can be bought cheaper or dearer, is the great problem 
of American statesmanship, will find that the 
laborers of tills country do not agree with him. 
[Applause] They mean to have it understood — and 
they are right — that having education open to them ; 
that having equality in politics their right and their 
heritage, that having the hopes of the future and all 
the delights of home, its purity, its dignity, their 
possession, for which they w ill vote, and for which 
they will fight, they will tolerate no party that sub- 
jects this manhood of the American laborer to the 
necessities or conveniences of wealth and luxury. 

It is not a question of the mauid'ucturer or of the 
merchant. It is not a question of the foreman or of 
the master-workman merely. It is a question of all 
the common people who taka p:u-t in the magnifi- 
cence of your commerce and of your mannfac tares. 



SPEECH OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. 



51 



and who bear their share of the taxation and the 
burdens, ia peace and in war ; that upliold this 
couuuy. And now, when it is found out that 
whether the Scribes and the Tharisces do or do not 
understand tliis problem of the tarUI to protect 
labor, the laborers understand it. You may be sure 
that the votes of those laborers will settle the ques- 
tion ill the great strenuous industries of those groat 
States of Connecticut, Xew-York and IS'ew- Jersey in 
favor of the dignity and the security of American 
labor. [Loud applause.] And if General Hancock 
don't fully understand the subject now, on the 3d 
day of Kovember he will sec through it clearly. 
[Laughter.] 

Well, gentlemen, we arc to come to the great judg- 
ment. Parties are to be judged ; people are to be 
judged. We lawyers have a maxim that in our trials ; 
the judge is condemned if the guilty escape ; and by 
the same rule the judge is condemned if the innocent 
are condemned. And this people, looking at these 
two parties, are quite as much in judgi::cut as they, 
the parties, are. If this people deliberately drives 
from power a party with the record of the Republican 
party, and with the fruits of the strenuous labors and 
courage in the field, of its soldiers, from Grant down 



to the private soldier, [applause,] and in civil life 
from Garfield down to the common artisan ; [ap- 
plause ;] if they put in power the opposite party, 
with such a record as that of the Democratic party, 
in the field, from Jefferson Da\is down to the com- 
mon soldier, and in statesmanship, fror.i the men 
that betrayed their trust to the conmion people that 
they deluded to their ruin, it is not the Republican 
party that is guilty, but the people are guilty of a 
desertion of their trust. [Applause.] Let r.s under- 
stand this matter. Let us hasten on the judgnunt of 
this people that follows close a flying foe. LjC us 
hear already the glad shout% of the .^Vmerican people 
renewing power in the name and in the persons of 
the Republican party and their candidates. [Ap- 
plause.] Let us hear, deserv-ed by us, 

Omnium consensu capax imperii quia imperavit : 

that in the judgment of foreign nations, in the judg- 
ment of all this people, in the judgment of the learned 
and the wise, in the judgment of the feeble and the 
poor, this party is capable of the trust of government 
because it has discharged it. [Applause.] — From the 
New- York Tribune, Thursday, October 21, 1880, 



Tlie great Speech of Colonel Robert G. Ixgersoll, m the Cooper Unions 
JVeto-York City, Saturday evening, October 23, 1880. 



Ladles and Gentlemen: Years ago I made up 
my mind that there was no particular argument in 
slander. [Applause.] I made up my mind that for 
parties, as well as for individuals, honesty in the long 
run is the best policy. [Applause.] I made up my 
mind that the people were entitled to know a man's 
honest thoughts, and I propose to-night to tell you ex- 
actly what I think. [Ai;plause.] And it may be well 
enough, in the first place, for me to say that no party 
has a mortgage on me. [Applause.] I am the sole 
proprietor of myself. [Laughter and applause.] No 
party, no organization, has a:iy deed of trust en what 
little brains I have, and as long as I can get my part 
of the common air, I am going to tell my honest 
thoughts. [Applause.] One man in the right will 
finally get to be a majority. [Laughter.] I am not 
going to say a word to-night that every Democrat 
here will not know is true, and, w^lateve^ he may say 
with his mouth, I will compel him in his heart to give 
three cheers. [Applause.] 

In the Ci'st place, I wish to admit that during the 
war there were hundreds of thousands of patriotic 
Democrats. I wish to admit that if it had not been for 
the War Democrats of the Xorth we never would have 
put down the rebellion. [Applause.] Let us be 
honest. I further admit that had it not been for other 
than War D^^^mocrats there never would have been a 
rebellion to put down. [Great applause.] War De- 
mocrats! Why did we call them War Democrats? 
Did you ever hear anybody talk about a War Repub- 
lican '! V»'e spoke of War Democrats to distinguish 
them from those Democrats w ho were in fa\or of 
peace upon any terms. 

I also ■wish to admit that the Republican party is not 



absolutely perfect. [Laughter.] While I believe that 
it is the best party that ever existed, [applause,] while 
I believe it has, w ithin its organization, more heart, 
more brain, more patriotism than any other organiza- 
tion that ever existed beneath the sun, I still admit 
that it is not entirely perfect. I admit, in its greai 
things, in its splendid efiorts to preserve this Nation, 
in its grand ellort to keep our flag in heaven, in its 
magnificent eCort to free four millions of slaves, [ap- 
plause,] in its great and sublime effort to save the 
financial honor of this Nation, I admit th:;t it has 
made some mistakes, la its great effort to do right 
it baa sometimes, by mistake, done wrong. And I 
also u ish to admit that the great Democratic party, 
in its effort to get oflice, has sometimes bj' mistake 
done right. [Laughter.] You see that I am inclined 
to be perfectly fair. [Applause and laughter.] lam 
going w ith the Republican party because it is going 
my way ; but if it ever turns to the right or left, I 
intend to go straight ahead. 

In every government there is something that ought 
to be preserved ; in every government there are many 
things that ought to be destroyed. Every good man, 
e\ery patriot, e\ery lo\ er of the human race, \n ishes 
to preserve the good and destroy the bail ; and every 
one in this audience who wishes to preserve the good 
will go with that section of our common country — 
with that party in our country that he honestly be- 
lieves will preserve the good aud destroy the bad. 
[Applause.] It takes a great deal of trouble to raise 
a good liepublican. [Laughter.] It is a vast deal 
of labor. The Republican party is the fri:;t of all 
ages — of self-sacrifice and devotion. [Applause.] 
The Republican party is born of e\ery good thing 



52 



SPEECH OF ROBERT G. IXGERSOLL. 



that was ever done in this world. [Applause.] The 
Republican party is the result of all martyrdom, of 
all heroic bloodshed for the right. It is the blossom 
and fruit of the great world's best endeavor. [Ap- 
plause.] In order to make a Republican you have 
got to have school-houses. [Applause.] You have 
got to have newspapers and magazines. [Applause.] 
A good Republican is the best fruit of civilization, of 
all there is of intelligence, of art, of music and of 
song. [Applause.] If you want to make Democrats, 
let them alone. [Laughter.] The Democratic party 
is the settlings of this country. [Laughter.] Nobody 
hoes weeds. Nobody takes especial pains to raise 
dog fennel, and yet it grows under the very hoof of 
travel. The seeds are sown by accident and gathered 
by chance. But if you want to raise ^\■heat and corn 
you must plough the ground. You must defend and 
you must harvest the crop with infinite patience and 
toil. It is precisely that way — if you want to raise a 
good Republican, you must work. If you wish to 
raise a Democrat, give him wholesome neglect. 
[Laughter.] The Democratic party flatters the vices 
of mankind. That party says to the ignorant man, 
"you know enough." It says to the vicious man, 
" you are good enough." 

The Republican party says, "you must he better 
next year than you are this." A man is a Re- 
publican because he loves something. Most men are 
Democrats because they hate something. A Repub- 
lican tr.hes a man, as it were, by the collar and says, 
"you must do your best, you hiust climb the infinite 
hill of human progress as long as you live." Now 
and then one gets tired. He says, " I have climbed 
enough, and so much better than I expected to do 
that I don't wish to travel any further." Now and 
then one gets tired and lets go all hold, and he rolls 
down to the very bottom, and as he strikes the mud j 
he springs npon his feet transfigured, and says, 
"Hurrah for Hancock." [Great laughter.] 

No Free Speech in the South. ! 

There are things in this Government that I wish to ' 
preserve, and there are things that I wish to destroy ; 
and in order to convince you that you ought to go the 
way that I am going, it is only fair that I give to you 
my reasons. This is a Republic founded upon intel- 
ligence and the patriotism of the people, and in every 
Rep;:blic it is absolutely necessary that there should 
be free speech. [" Good," " good," and applause.] 
Free speech is the gem of the human soul. Words 
are the bodies of thought, and liberty gives to those 
words wings, and the whole intellectual heavens are 
filled with thought. [Applause.] In a Republic 
every individual tongue has a right to the general 
ear. In a Republic every man has the right to give 
his reasons for the course he pursues to all his fellow- 
citizens, and when you say that a man shall not 
speak, you also say that others shall not hear. When 
you say a man shall not express his honest thoughts, 
you say his fellow-citizens shall be deprived of honest 
thoughts ; for of what use is it to allow the attorney for 
the defendant to address the jury, if the jury has been 
bought ! Of what use is it to allow the jury, if they 
bring in a verdict of "not guilty," if the defendant 
is to be hanged by a mob ? I ask you to-nisht. is not 
every solitary man here in fa\-or of free speech ? Is 



there a solitary Democrat here who dares say he is 
not in favor of free speech ? In what part of this 
country are the lips of thought free— in the South or 
in the North ? What section of our country can you 
trust the inestimible gem of free speech with ? Can 
you trust it to the gentlemen of Mississippi or to the 
gentlemen of Massachusetts ? Can you trust it to 
Alabama or to New- York ? Can you tmst it to the 
South or can you trust it to the great and splendid 
North ? Honor bright— [laughter]— honor bright, is 
there any freedom of speech in the South ? There 
never was, and there is none to-night— and let me tell 
you why. 

They had the institution of human slavery in the 
South, which could not be defended at the bar of 
public reason. It was an institution that could not 
be defended in the high forum of human conscience. 
No man could stand there, and defend the right to 
rob the cradle— none to defend the right to sell the 
babe from the breast of the agonized mother — none 
to defend the claim that lashes on a bare back are a 
legal tender for labor performed. Every man that 
lived upon the unpaid labor of another knew in his 
heai-t that he was a thief. [Applause.] And for that 
reason he did not wish to discuss that question. 
[Laughter.] Thereupon the institution of slavery 
said, "You shall not speak ;' you shall not reason," 
and the lips of free thought were manacled. You 
know it. Every one of you. [Laughter.] Every 
Democrat knows it as well as every Republican. 
There never -was free speech in the South. 

And what has been the result ? And allow me to 
admit right here, because I want to be fair, there are 
thousands and thousands of most excellent people in 
the South— thousands of them. There are hundreds 
and hundreds of thousands there who would like to 
vote the Republican ticket. [Applause.] And when- 
ever there is free speech there, and whenever there is 
a free ballot there, they wDl vote the Republican 
ticket. [Great applause.] I say again, there are 
hundreds of thousands of good people in the South ; 
but the institution of human slavery prevented free 
speech, and it is a splendid fact in nature that you 
cannot put chains upon the limbs of others without 
putting corresponding manacles upon your own brain. 
[Applause.] When the South enslaved the negro, it 
also enslaved itself, and the result was an intellectual 
desert. No book has been produced, with one ex- 
ception, that has added to the knowledge of man- 
kind ; no paper, no magazine, no poet, no philoso- 
pher, no philanthropist, was ever raised in that desert. 
[Great applause.] Now and then some one pro- 
tested against that infamous institution, and he came 
as near being a philosopher as the society in which 
he lived permitted. [Laughter.] Why is it that New- 
England, a rock-clad land, blossoms like a rose ? 
Why is it that New- York is the Empire State of the 
great Union ? I will tell you. Because you have 
been permitted to trade in ideas. Because the lips of 
speech have been absolutely free for twenty years. 
[Applause.] We never had free speech in any State 
in this Union untU the Republican party was bom. 
[Applause.] That party was rocked in the cradle of 
intellectual liberty, and that is the reason I say it is 
t'le best party that ever existed in the wide, v.ide 
v.nrld. [Applause.] I want to preserve free speech, 
and, as an honest man, I look about me and I say, 



* SPEECH OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. 



53 



"How can I best preserve it ?" By giving it to the 
Soutlior North ; to the Democracy or to the Republi- 
can party '! And I am bound, as an lionest man, to 
say true speech is safest with its earliest defenders. 
[Applause.] Where is there such a thnig as a Re- 
publican mob to prevent the expression of an honest 
thodght ; where ? The people of the South are 
allowed to come to the North ; they are allowed to 
express their sentiments upon every stump in the 
great East, the great West and in the great Middle 
States ; they go to Maine, to Vermont, and to all our 
States, and they are allowed to speak, and we give 
them a respectful hearing, and the meanest thing we 
do is to answer their argument. [Applause.] 

I say to-night that we ought to have the same liberty 
to discuss these questions in the South that other 
Southerners have in the North. And I say more than 
that, the Democrats of the North ought to compel the 
Democrats of the South to treat the Republicans of 
the South as well as the Republicans of the North 
treat them. [Applause.] We treat the Democrats 
well in the North ; [laugbter ;] we treat them like 
gentlemen in the North ; and yet they go in partner- 
ship with the Democracy of the South, knowing that 
the Democracy of the South will not treat Republi 
cans in that section with fairness. A Democrat ought 



tain of power, poisons the springs of justice, and is 
a traitor to the only king in this laud. The Govern- 
ment is upon the edge of Mcxicanizatiou through 
fraudulent voting. The ballot-box is the throne of 
America ; the ballot-bos is the ark of the covenant. 
Unless we see to it that every man who has a right 
to vote votes, and unless we see to it that every 
honest vote is counted, the days of this Republic are 
numbered. 

When you suspect that a Congressman is not elec- 
ted ; when you suspect that a judge upon the bench 
holds his place by fraud, then the people will hold 
the law in contempt, and will laugh at the decisions 
of courts, and then come revolution and chaos. It 
IS the duty of every good man to see to it that the 
ballot-box is kept absolutely pure. It is the duty of 
every patriot, whether he is a Democrat or Republi- 
can—and I want to further admit that 1 believe a 
large majority of Democrats are honest in their 
opinions, and I know that all Republicans tnusl be 
honest in their opinions. [Applause.] It is tlie duty, 
then, of all honest men of both parties to see to it 
that only honest votes are cast and counted. Now, 
honor bright, which section of this Union can you 
trust the ballot-box with ? Honor bright, can you 
trust it with the masked murderers who rode in the 



to be ashamed of that. If my friends will not treat i darkness of night to the hut of the freedman and 



other people as well as the friends of the other 
people treat me, I'll swap friends. [Applause and 
laughter.] 

First, then, I am in favor of free speech, and I am 
going vdtli that section of my country that believes ni 
free speech ; I am going with that party that has 
always upheld that sacred right. When you stop free 
speech, when you say that a thought shall die in the 
womb of the brain— why, it would have the same 
effect upon the intellectual world that to stop springs 
at their sources would have upon the physical world. 
Stop the springs at their sources and they cease to 
gurgle, the streams cease to murmur, and the great 
rivers cease rushing to the embrace of the sea. So 
you stop thought. Stop thought in the bram in 
which it is born, and theory I'.ies ; and the great 
ocean of knowledge to which all should be permitted 
to contributa, and from which all should be allowed 
to draw, becomes a vast desert of ignorance. [Ap- 
plause.] 

I have always said, and I say again, that the more 
liberty there is given away, the n\ow you ha\ e. There 
is room in this world for us all ; there is room enough 
for all of our thoughts ; out upon the intellectual sea 
there is room for every sail, and in the intellectual 
au: there is space for every wing. [Applause.] A 
man that exercises a right that he will not give to 
others is a barbarian. A State that does not allow 
free speech is uncivilized, and is a disgrace to the 
American Union. [Applause.] 

The Party of an Honest Ballot. 

I am not only in favor of free speech, but I am 
also in favor of an absolutely honest ballot. There 
is one king in this country ; there is one emperor ; 
there is one supreme Czar ; and that is the legally 
expressed will of a majority of the people. [Ap- 
plause.] The man who casts an illegal vote, the man 
who refuses to count a legal vote, poisons the foiln- 



shot him down, notwithstanding the supplication of 
his wife and the tears of his babe ? Can you trust 
it to the men who since the close of our w ar have 
killed more men, simply because those men wished 
to vote, simply because they wished to exercise a 
right with which they had been clothed by the sub- 
lime heroism of the North — who have killed more men 
than were killed on botli sides in the Revolutionary 
War ; than were killed on both sides during the War 
of 1812 ; than were killed on both sides in both wars ? 
Can you trust them ? Can ^ou trust the gentlemen who 
invented the tissue-ballot? [Laughter. [ Do you 
wish to put the ballot-box in the keeping of the shot- 
gun, of the White Liners, of the Ku Klux ? Do you 
wish to put the ballot-box in the keeping of men 
who openly swear that they will not be ruled by a 
majority of American citizens if a portion of that 
majority is made of. black men ? [Applause.] And I 
w ant to tell you right here, I like a black man who 
loves this country better than I do a white man who 
hates it. [Applause.] I think more of a black man 
who fouglit for oin- flag than for any white man who 
endeavored to tear it out of heaven ! [Applause.] 
I like black friends better than white enemies. [.Ap- 
plause.] And 1 think more of a man black outside 
and white inside than I do of one white outside and 
black inside. [Applause.] 

I say, can you trust the ballot-box to the Demo- 
cratic party? Read the history of the State of New- 
York ! [Laughter.] Read the history of this great 
and magnificent city — the Queen of the Atlantic — 
read her history and tell us whether you can implic- 
itly trust Democratic returns? [Laughter.] Honor 
bright ! [Laughter.] 

I am not only, then, for free speech, but I am for 
an honest ballot ; and in order that you may have no 
doubt left upon your minds as to which party is ia 
favor of an honest vote, I will call your attention to 
this striking fact. Every law that has been passed in 
, every State of this Union for twenty long years, the 



64 



bl'EECll OF liUBtltX G. INCJKKSOLL. 



object of which was to guard the American ballot- 
box, has been passed by the Republican partj-, [ap- 
plause,] and in every State where the Republican 
party has introduced such a bill for the purpose of 
making it a law ; in every State where such a bill has 
been defeated, it has been defeated by the Democratic 
party . [Applause.] That ought to satisfy any reason- 
able man to satiety. 

Who Shall Collect the Revenue ? 

I am not only in favor of free speech and an honest 
ballot, but I am in favor of collecting and disbursing 
the revenues of the United States. I want plenty of 
money to collect and pay the interest on our debt. I 
want plenty of money to pay our debt and to preser\e 
the ihiancial honor of the United States. [Applause.] 
I want money enough to be collected to pay pensions 
to widows and orphans and to wounded soldiers. 
[Applause.] And the question is, what section in 
this country can you trust to collect and disburse 
that revenue ? Let us be honest about it. [Laugh- 
ter.] What section can you trust? In the last four 
years we have collected $407,000,000 of the internal 
revenue taxes. We ha\e collected, principally from 
taxes upon liigh wines and tobacco, $418,000,000, and 
in those four years we have seized, libelled and de- 
stroyed in the Soutlu'en States 3,874 illicit distilleries. 
And during the same time the Southern people have 
shot to death twenty-five revenue otBcers and wound- 
ed lifty-flve others, and the only offence that the 
wounded and dead committed was an honest effort 
to collect the revenues of this country. [Applause.] 
Recollect it— don't you forget it. [Laughter.] And 
in several Southern States to-day every revenue col- 
lector or officer connected with the revenue is fur- 
nished by the Internal Revenue Department with a 
breech-loading rille and a pair of revolvers, simply 
for the purpose of collecting the revenue. I don't feel 
like trusting such people to collect the revenue of my 
Government. 

During the same four years we have arrested and 
have indicted 7,084 Southern Democrats for endeavor- 
ing to defraud the rexenue of the United States. 
Recollect— 3,874 distilleries seized, as revenue officers 
killed, 55 wounded, and 7,084 Democrats arrested. 
[Applause. [ Can we trust them? 

The State of Alabama in its last Democratic Con- 
vention passed a resolution that no man should be 
tried in a Federal Court for a violation of the revenue 
laws— that he should be tried in a State Court. 
[Laughter.] Think of it— he should be tried in a 
State Court ! Let me tell you how it will come out if 
we trust the Southern States to collect this revenue. 
A couple of Methodist ministers had been holding a 
revival for a week, and at the end of the week one 
said to the other that he thought it time to take up a 
collection. When the hat was returned he found in 
it pic ces of slate pencils and nails and buttons, but not 
a single solitary cent [laughter]— not one— and his 
brother minister got up and looked at the contribu 
tion, and he said, " Let us thank God !" [Laughter.] 
And the owner of the hat said, '■ What for ?" And 
the brother replied, "Because you got your hat 
bacli." [Roars of laughter and applause.] If we 
trust the South we won't get our hat back. [Laugh- 
ter and cheers.] 



Honest Money and an Honest 
Nation. 

I am next in favor of honest money. I am in favor 
of gold and silver, and paper with gold and silver be- 
hind it. [Applause.] I believe in silver, because it 
is one of the greatest of American products, and I 
am in favor of anything that will add to the value of 
an American product. [Applause.] But I want a 
silver dollar worth a gold dollar, even if yon make it 
or have to make it four feet in diameter. [Great 
laughter.] No Government can afford to be a clip- 
per of coin. [Applause.] A great Republic cannot 
afford to stamp a lie upon silver or gold. [Great ap- 
plause.] Honest money, an honest people, an honest 
Kation ! [Renewed applause.] When our money is 
only worth 80 cents on the dollar, we feel 20 percent, 
below par. [Great laughter.] When our money is 
good, we feel good. When our money is at par, that is 
where we are. [Applause and laughter.] I am a 
profound believer in the doctrine that for nations as 
as well as men, honesty is the best, always, every- 
where and forever. [Tremendous ai)plause.] 

What section of this country, what party will give 
us honest money— honor bright— honor bright ? 
[Laughter.] I have been told that during the war 
we had plenty of money. I never saw it I lived 
years without seeing a dollar. I saw promises for 
dollars, but not dollars. [Applause.] And thegreen- 
back, unless you have the gold behind it, is no more 
a dollar than a bill of fare is a dinner. [Great laugh 
ter.] You cannot make a paper dollar without taking 
a dollar's worth of paper. We must have paper that 
represents money. I want it issued by the Govern- 
ment, and I want behind every one of these dollars 
either a gold or a silver dollar, so that every green- 
back under the flag can lift up its hand and s^^•ear, 
" I know that my redeemer liveth." [Great laughter.] 

M'hen we were running into debt, thousands of 
people mistook that for prosperity, and when we 
began paying, they regarded it as adversity. [Laugh- 
ter.] Of course we had plenty when we bought on 
credit. No man has ever starved when his credit 
was good, if there were no famine in that country. 
[Laughter.] As long as we buy on credit we shall 
have enough. The trouble commences \\hen the 
pay-day arrives. [Laughter.] And I do not wonder 
that after the war thousands of people said, " Let us 
have another inflation." What party said, " No, we 
must pay the promise made in war ?" [Great ap- 
l)lause.] Honor bright ! The Democratic party had 
once been a hard money party, but it drifted from its 
metallic moorings and floated off in the ocean of in- 
flation, and you know it ! [Laughter.] They said, 
"Give us more money," and every man that had 
bought on credit and owed a little something on what 
he had purchased, \vhen the property went down, he 
commenced crying, or many of them did, for infla- 
tion. I understand it. A man, say, bought a piece 
of land for $0,000 ; paid $5,000 on it ; gave a mort- 
gage for $1,000, and suddenly, in 1873, found that the 
land would not pay the other thousand. The land 
had resumed. [Much laughter.] And then he said, 
looking lugubriously at his note and mortgage, "I 
want another inflation." And I never heard a man 
call for it that did not also say, 'If it ever comes, 
and I don't unload, you may shoot me." [Great 
laughter.] 



SPEECH OF KOBEUT G. INCIERSOLL. 



55 



It was very much as it is sometimes in playing 
polcer, and I malce tliis comparison knowing tliat 
hardly a person here will understand it. [Great 
laughter. A voice— " Honor bright!" Renewed 
laughter.] I have been told [laughter] that along to- 
ward morning [laughter] the man that is ahead sud- 
denly says, " I have got to go home. [Great laugh- 
ter.] The fact is, my wife is not well." [Great 
laughter.] And the fellow who is behind says, " Let 
us have another deal." [Laughter.] I have my 
opinion of the fellow that will jump a game. And so 
it was in the hard times of 3873. They said : " Give 
us another deal ; let us get our driftwood back into 
the centre of the stream." And they cried out for 
more money. But the Kepublican party said : " We 
do want more money, but not more promises. We 
have got to pay this first, and if we start out again 
upon that wide sua of promise we may never touch 
the shore." [Applause.] 

The Fallacy and Folly of Fiat 
Dollars, 

A thousand theories were bom of want ; a thou- 
sand theories were born of the fertile brain of trouble ; 
and these people said after all : " What is money ? 
why it is nothhig but a measure of value, just the 
same as a half bushel or yard stick." True. And 
consequently it makes no difference whether your 
half bushel is of wood, or gold, or silver or paper ; 
and it makes no diCereuce whether your yard stick is 
gold or paper. But the trouble about that statement 
is this : A half bushel is not a measure of value ; it 
is a measure of quantity, and it measures rubies, 
diamonds aud pearls, precisely the same as corn and 
wheat. The yard stick is not a measure of value ; it 
is a measure of length, and it measures lace, worth 
glOO a yard, precisely as it does one cent tape. And 
another reason why it makes no dilierence to the 
purchaser whether the half bushel is gold or silver, 
or whether the yard stick is gold or paper, you don't 
buy the yard stick ; you don't get the lialf bushel in 
the trade. And if it was so with money — if the people 
that had the money at the start of the trade, kept 
it after the consummation of the bargain — then it 
wouldn't make any difference what you made your 
money of. But the trouble is the money changes 
hands. Aud let me say to-night, money is a thing — 
it is a product of nature— and you can no more make 
a "fiat " dollar than you can make a fiat star. I am 
in favor of honest money. Free speech is the brain 
of the Republic ; an honest ballot is the breath of its 
life, and honest monej' is the blood that courses 
through its veins. [Applause.] 

If I am fortunate enough to leave a dollar when I 
die, I want it to be a good one ; I don't wish to have 
it turn to ashes in the hands of widowhood, or be- 
come a Democratic broken promise in the pocket of 
the orphan ; I want it money. I saw not long ago a 
piece of gold bearing the stamp of the Roman Empire. 
Tliat Empire is dust, and over it has been thrown the 
mantle of oblivion, but that piece of gold is as good 
as thougli Julius C'asar were still riding at the head 
of the Roman Legion. [Applause.] I want money 
that will outlive the Democraric party. They told us 
— and they were honest about it — they said, "when 
we ha\e plenty of money, we arc prosperous." And 



I said, " When we arc prosperous, wc have plenty of 
money." When we are prosperous, then wc have 
credit, and credit inflates the currency. Whenever a 
man buys a pound of sugar and says, "Charge it," 
he inflates the currency ; whenever he gives his note, 
he inflates the currency ; whenever his ^vord takes the 
place of money, he inflates the currency. The con- 
sequence is that when we are prosperous, credit takes 
the place of money, and we have what we call 
" plenty." But you cannot increase prosperity simply 
by using promises to pay. Suppose you should come 
to a river that was about dry, and there you would 
see the ferryboat, and the gentleman who kept the 
feiTy, high on the sand, and the cracks all opening in 
the sun filled with loose oakum, looking like an 
average Democratic mouth listening to a Constitu- 
tional argument, and you should say to liim, " Uow 
is business •■" [Applause and laughter.] And he 
would say, "Dull." And then you would say to him, 
"Now, what you want is more boat." He would 
j)robably answer, "If I had a little more water I 
could get along with this one." [Laughter.] 

But I want to be fair, [laughter,] and I wish to- 
night to return my thanks to the Democratic party. 
You did a great and splendid work. You went all 
over the United States and you said upon every 
stump that a greenback was better than gold. You 
said, "We have at last found the money of the poor 
man. Gold loves the rich ; gold haunts banks and 
safes and vaults ; but we have got money that will 
go around inquiring for a man that is dead broke. 
[Great laughter.] We have finally found money that 
will stay in a pocket with holes in it." [Laughter.] 
But after all, do you know that money is the most 
social thing in this world ? [Laughter.] If a fellow 
has got $1 in his pocket, and he meets another with 
two, do you know that dollar is absolutely homesick 
until it gets where the other two are 't [Laughter.] 
And yet the Greenbackers told us that they had 
finally invented money that would be the poor man's 
friend. They said, " It is better than gold, better 
that silver," and they got so many men to believe it 
that when we resumed and said, " Here is your gold 
for your greenback," the fellows who had the green- 
back said, "We don't want it. The greenbacks are 
good enough for us." Do you know, if they had 
wanted it we could not give it to thum 'i [Laughter.] 
And so I return my thanks to the Greenback party. 
But allow me to say in this connection, the days of 
their usefulness have passed forever. [Applause.] 

Now, I am not foolish enough to claim that the 
Republican party resumed I am not silly enough to 
say that John Sherman resumed. But I will tell you 
what I do say. I say that every man who raised a 
bushel of corn, or a bushel of wheat, or a pound of 
beef or pork for sale, helped to resume. [Applause.] 
I say that the gentle rain and the loving dew helped 
to resume. The soil of the United States impregnated 
by the loving sun helped to resume. The men that 
dug the coal aud the iron, aud the silver and the 
copper and the gold, helped to resume. And the men 
upon whose foreheads fell the light of furnaces 
helped to resume. And the sailors who fought with 
the waves of the seas helped to resume. 

I admit to-night that the Democrats earned their 
share of the money to resume with. All I claim in 
God's world is that the Republican party furnished the 



56 



SPEECH OF ROBERT O. INGEKSOLL. 



honesty to pay it over. [Great applause.] That is what 
I claim ; and the Republican party set the day, and 
the Republican party worked to the promise. Tliat 
is what I say. And had it not been for the Republi- 
can party this nation would have been financially 
dishonored. [Applause.] I am for honest money, 
and I am for the payment of every dollar of our debt, 
and so is every Democrat now, I take it. But what 
did you say a little while ago ? Did you say we could 
resume ? No ; you swore we could not, and you 
swore our bonds would be as worthless as the with- 
ered leaves of winter. And now, when a Democrat 
goes to England, and sees an American four per cent, 
quoted at 1 10 he Ivind of swells up, [laughter.] and he 
says: "Thafs the kind of man I am." [Great 
laughter.] In that country he i)retends he was a Re- 
publican in this. And I don't blame him. And 1 
don't begrudge him enjoying respectability when 
awaj' from home. [Laughter.] The Republican 
party is entitled to the credit for Ivecping this nation 
grandly and splendidly honest. [Applause.] I say, 
the Republican party is entitled to the credit of pre- 
serving the honor of this nation. [Applause.] 

The Struggle after the Panic. 

In 1873 came the crash, and all the languages of the 
world cannot describe the agonies suffered by the 
American people from 1873 to 1879. A man >\'ho 
thought he was a millionaire came to poverty ; he 
found his stocks and bonds ashes in the paralytic 
hand of old age. Men who expected to have lived 
all their lives in the sunshine of joy found themselves 
beggars and i>aupers. The great factories were closed, 
the workmen were demoralized, and the roads of the 
United States were filled with tramps. In the hovel 
of the poor and the palace of the rich came the ser- 
pent of temptation, and whispered in the American 
ear the terribhe word, "Repudiation." But the Re- 
publican party said, " No ; we will pay every dollar. 
[Applause.] No ; we have started toward the shining 
goal of resumption, and we never wiil turnback." 
[Applause.] And the Republican party struggled 
until it had the happiness of seeing upon the broad 
shining forehead of American labor the words, "Fi- 
nancial Honor." [Applause.] 

The Republican party struggled until e^■ery paper 
promise was as good as gold. [Applause.] And the 
moment we got back to gold then we commenced to 
rise again. We could not jump up until our feet 
touched something that they could be pressed against. 
And from that moment to this we have been going, 
going, going, going higher and higher, more prosper- 
ous every hour. [Applause.] And now they say, " Let 
ns have a change." [Laughter.] When I am sick I 
want a change ; when I am poor I want a change ; 
and if I were a Democrat I would have a personal 
change. [Laughter.] We are prosperous to-day, and 
must keep so. We are back to gold and silver. Let 
us stay there ; and let us stay with the party that 
brought us there. [" Good," good," and applause.] 

A Nation, Not a Confederacy. 

Now, I am not only in favor of free speech and an 
honest ballot-box and an honest collection of the 
revenue of the United States and an honest money, 



but I am in favor of the idea of the great and splen- 
did truth that this is a nation one and indivisible. 
[Great applause.] I deny that we are a confederacy 
bound together with ropes of cloud and chains of mist. 
This is a nation, and every man in :t owes his first 
allegiance to the grand old flag for which more brave 
blood was shed than for any other flag that waves in 
the sight of heaven. [Great applause.] 

The Southern people say this is a confederacy, and 
they are honest in it. They fought for it, they be- 
lieved it. They believe in the doctrine of btate Sov- 
ereignty, and many Democrats of the North believe 
in the same doctrine. No less a man than Horatio 
Seymour— standing it may be at the head of Demo- 
cratic statesmen— said, if he has been correctly re- 
ported, only the other day, that he despised the w ord 
" Nation." I bless that word. [Applause.] I owe 
my first allegiance to that Nation, and it owes its 
first protection to me. [Great applause.] I am talk- 
ing here to-night, not because I am protected by the 
flag of New-York. I would not know that flag if I 
should see it. [Laughter.] I am talking here, and 
have the right to talk here, because the flag of my 
country is above us. [Applause.] I have the same 
right as though I had been born upon this very plat- 
form. I am proud of New-York because it is a part 
of my country. I am proud of my country because it 
has got such a State as New- York in it, [grc^t ap- 
plause.] and I will be prouder of New- York on a week 
from next Tuesday than ever before in my life. 
[Great cheering.] I despise the doctrine of State 
Sovereignty. I believe in the rights of the States, 
but not in the sovereignty of the States. States are 
political conveniences. Rising above States as the 
Alps above valleys are the rights of man. Rising 
above the rights of the Government even in this Na- 
tion are the sublime rights of the people. [Loud ap- 
plause.] Governments are good only so long as they 
protect human rights. But the rights of a man never 
.should be sacrificed upon the altar of the State or 
upon the altar of the Nation. [Applause.] 

State Sovereignty and Human 
Slavery, 

Let me tell you a few objections that I have got to 
State Sovereignty. That doctrine has never been ap- 
pealed to for any good. The first time it was ap- 
pealed to was when our Constitution was made. And 
the object then was to keep the slave trade open until 
the year 1808. The object then was to make the sea 
the highway of piracy— the object then was to allow 
American citizens to go into the business of selling 
men and women and children, and feed their cargo 
to the sharks of the sea, and the sharks of the sea 
were as merciful as they. That was the first time 
that the appeal to the doctrine of State Sovereignty 
was made, and the next time was for the purpose of 
keeping alive the inter-State slave ti-ade, so that a 
gentleman in Vhgiuia could sell his slave to the rice 
and cotton plantations of the South. Think of it ! 
It was made so they could rob the cradle in the name 
of the law. Think of it ! Think of it ! And the 
next time they appealed to the doctrine of State 
Sovereignty was in favor of the Fugitive Slave law — 
a law that made a bloodhound of every Northern 
man ; that made charity a crime. A law that made 



SPEECU OF ROBERT G. IXGEKSOLL. 



57 



love a State prison offence : tluit branded the fore- 
head of charity as if it were a felon. Thinli of it ! 
A law that, if a woman ninety-nine one-hundredths 
wliite had escaped from slavery, had traversed forests, 
had been torn by briars, had crossed rivers, had 
travelled at night and in darkness, and had finally 
got within one step of free soil, with the whole light 
of the North star shining in her tear-lilled eyes, with 
her little babe on her withered bosom— a law that de- 
clared it the duty of Northern men to clutch that 
woman and turn her back to the domination of the 
hound and the lash. [Tremendous applause.] I 
have no respect for any man living or dead who voted 
for that law. I have no respect for any man who 
would carry it out. I never had. 

The next time they appealed to the doctrine of State 
So\ ereignty was to increase the area of human slavery, 
so that the bloodhound, with clots of blood dropping 
from his loose and hanging jaws, might traverse the 
billowy plains of Kansas. Think of it ! The Demo- 
cratic party then said the Federal Government had a 
right to cross the State line. And the next time they 
appealed to that infamous doctrine was in defence 
of secession and treason ; a doctrine that cost us 
six thousand millions of dollars ; a doctrine that cost 
fom- hundred thousand lives ; a doctrine that filled 
our country with widows, our homes with orphans. 
And I tell you the doctrine of State Sovereignty is 
the viper in the bosom of this Republic, and if wo 
do not kill that viper it will kill us. [Long continued 
applause.] 

The Democrats tell us that in the olden time the 
Federal Government had a right to cross a State line 
to put shackles upon the limbs of men. It had the | 
right to cross a State line to trample upon the rights 
of human beings, but now it has no right to cross 
those 1 ines upon an errand of mercy or justice. We are 
told that now, when the Federal Government wishes 
to protect a citizen, a State line rises like a Chinese 
wall, and the sword of Federal power turns to air the 
moment it touches one of those lines. I deny it, and 
I despise, abhor and execrate the doctrine of State 
Sovereignty. [Applause.] The Democrats tell us if 
we wish to be protected by the Federal Government 
we must leave home. [Laughter.] I wish they would 
try it [applause] for about ten days. [Great laughter.] 
They say the Federal Government can defend a 
citizen in England, France, Spain or Germany, but 
cannot defend a child of the Republic sitting around 
the family hearth. I deny it. A Government that 
cannot protect its citizens at home is unfit to be called 
a Government. [Applause.] 1 want a Government 
with an ear so good that it can hear the faintest cry 
of Ihe oppressed wherever its flag floats. [Applause.] 
I want a Government with an arm long enough and 
a sword sharp enough to cut down treason wherever 
it may raise its serpent head. [Applause.] I want 
a Government that will protect a freedman, standing 
by his little log hut, with the same alacrity and with 
the same efficiency that it would protect Vanderbilt, 
living in a palace of marble and gold. [Applause.] 
Humanity is a sacred thing, and manhood is a thing 
to be preserved. Let us look at it. For instance, 
here is a war, and the Federal Government says to a 
man, " We want you," and he says, "No, I don't 
want to go," and then they put a lot of pieces of 
paper in a wheel, and on one of those pieces is his 



name, and another man turns the crank, and then 
they pull it out and there is his name, and they say, 
" Come," and so he goes. [Laughter.] And they 
stand him in front of the brazen-throated guns ; they 
make him fight for his native land, and when the 
war is over he goes home, and he finds the war has 
been unpopular in his neighborhood, and they tramp 
upon his rights, and he says to the Federal Govern- 
ment, " Protect me." And he says to that Govern- 
ment, '■ I owe my allegiance to you. You must pro- 
tect me." What will you say of that Govenir.icnt if 
it says to him, " You must look lo your State for 
protection." '■ Ah, but," he says, " my State is the 
very power trampling upon me," and, of course, 
the robber is not going to send for the i)olice. [Ap- 
plause.] It is the duty of the Government to de- 
fend even its drafted men ; and if that is the duty of 
the Government, what shall I say of the volunteer, 
who for one moment holds his wife in a tremulous 
and agonized embrace, kisses his children, shoulders 
his musket, goes to the field, and says, " Here I am, 
ready to die for my native land." [A voice, "Good."] 
A nation that will not defend its volunteer defenders 
is a disgrace to the map of this world. A flag that 
will not protect its protectors is a dirty rag that con- 
taminates the air in which it waves. [Applause.] 
This is a Nation. Free speech is the brain of the 
Republic ; an honest ballot is the breath of its life ; 
honest money is the blood of its veins ; and the idea 
of nationality is its great beating, throbbing heart. 
[Applause.] I am for a Nation. And yet the Demo- 
crats tell me that it is dangerous to have centralized 
power. How would you have it ? I believe in the 
localization of power ; I believe in having enough of 
it localized in one place to be effectively used ; I be- 
lieve in a localization of brain. I suppose Demo- 
crats would like to have it spread all over your bodj', 
[applause and laughter,] and they act as though 
theirs was. 

Protecting American Labor. 

There is another thing in which I believe : I be- 
lieve in the protection of American labor. The hand 
that holds Aladdin's lamp must be the hand of toil. 
This Nation rests upon the shoulders of its workers, 
and I want the American laboring man to have 
enough to wear ; I want him to have enough to eat ; 
I want him to have something for the ordinary mis- 
fortunes of life ; I want him to have the pleasure of 
seeing his wife well dressed ; I wanti him to see a few 
blue ribbons fluttering about his children ; I want 
him to see the flags of health flying in their beautiful 
cheeks : I want him to feel that this is his country, 
and the shield of protection is above his labor. [Ap- 
ulause.] 

And I will tell you why I am for protection, too. 
If we were all farmers we would bestupid. If we 
were all shoemakers we would be stupid. If we all 
followed one business, no matter what it was, we 
would become stupid. Protection to American labor 
diversifies American industry, and to have it diversi- 
fied touches and develops every part of the human 
brain. Protection jirotects ingenuity ; it protects in- 
telligence ; and protection raises sense ; and by pro- 
tection wc have greater men and better looking 
women and healthier children. [Applause.] Free 
Trade means that our laborer is upon an equality 



58 



SPEECH OF ROBERT G. INGERSOT-L. 



with the poorest paid labor of this world. And allow I 
me to tell 3011 that for an empty stomach, "Hurrah 
for Hancock " is a poor consolation. [Laughter.] I 
do not think much of a Government where the 
people do not have enough to eat. [Applause.] I am 
a materialist to that extent ; I want something to eat. 
I have been in countries where the laboring man had 
meat once a year ; sometimes twice — Christmas and 
Easter. And I have seen women carrying upon 
their heads a burden that no man in this audience 
could carry, and at the same time knitting busily 
with both hands, and those women lived without 
meat ; and when I thought of the American laborer, 
I said to myself, "After all, my country is the best 
in the world." [Applause.] And when I came back 
to the sea and saw the old flag flying in the air, it 
seemed to me as though the air from pure joy had 
burst into blossom; [Applause.] 

Labor has more to eat and more to wear in the 
United States than in any other land of this earth. 
[Applause.] I want America to produce everything 
that Americans need. I want it so if the whole 
world should declare war against us, so if we were 
surrounded by walls of cannon and bayonets and 
swords, wc could supply all our human wants in and 
of ourselves. [Applause.] I want to live to see the 
American woman dressed in American silk ; the 
American man in everything from hat to boots pro- 
duced in America, [applause,] by the cunning hand 
of American toil ; I want to see the workingman have 
a good house, painted white, grass in the front yard, 
carpets on its floor, pictures on the wall. [Applause.] 
I want to see him a man feeling that he is a king by 
the divine right of living in the Republic. [Applause.] 
And every man here is just a little bit a king, you 
know. Every man here is a part of the sovereign 
power. Every man wears a little of purple ; every 
man has a little of crown and a little of sceptre ; 
and every man that will sell his vote for money or be 
ruled by prejudice is unfit to be an American citizen. 
[Applause.] 

I believe in American labor, and I will tell you 
why. The other day a man told me that we had pro- 
duced in the L'nited States of America one million 
tons of steel rails. How much are tliey worth ? Sixty 
dollars a ton. In other words, the million tons are 
worth $00,000,000. How much is a ton of iron worth 
in the ground ? Twenty-five cents. American labor 
takes twenty-five cents of iron in the ground and 
adds to it $59.75. [Applause.] One million tons of 
rails, and the raw material not worth $34,000. We 
build a ship in the United States worth $500,000, and 
the value of the ore in the earth, of the trees in the 
great forest, of all that enters into the composition 
of that ship bringing $.500,000 in gold is only $30,000 ; 
$480,000 by American labor, American muscle, coined 
into gold ; American brains made a legal-tender the 
world around. [Applause.] 

,gource of the Free Trade 
Doctrine. 

I propose to stand by the Nation. I want the fur- 
naces kept hot. I w;int the sky to be filled with the 
smoke of American industry, and upon that cloud of 
smoke will rest forever the bow of perpetual prom- 
ise. ["Good," "good;" great cheers.] That is 



what I am for. [A voice — "So are we all."] Yes, 
sir. [Laughter.] Where did this doctrine of a tariff 
for revenue only come from ? From the South. The 
South would like to stab the prosperity of the North. 
They liad rather trade with Old England than with 
New England. They had rather trade with the 
people who were willing to help them in war than 
those who conquered the rebellion. [Great cheers.] 
They Icnew what gave us our strength in war. They 
knew that all the brooks and creeks and rivers of 
New-England were putting down the rebellion. They 
knew that every wheel that turned, every spindle that 
revolved, was a soldier in the army of human prog- 
ress. It won't do. [Great applause.] They were so 
lured by the greed of oftice that they were willing to 
trade upon the misfortunes of a Nation. It won't do. 
I don't wish to belong to a party that succeeds only 
when my country fails. I don't wish to belong to a 
party whose banner went up with the banner of re- 
bellion. I don't wish to belong to a party that was 
inpartnership with defeat and disaster. I don't. [Ap- 
plause.] And there isn't a Democrat here but wl:at 
knows that a failure of the crops this year would 
have helped his party. [Applause.] You know that 
an early frost would have been a godsend to theui, 
[Laughter.] You know that the potato-bug could 
have done them more good than all their speakers. 
[Great applause.] 

I wish to belong to that party which is prosperous 
when the country is prosperous. I belong to that 
party which is not poor when the golden billows arc 
running over the seas of wheat. I belong to that 
party that is prosperous when there are oceans of corn, 
and when the cattle are upon the thousand hills. I 
belong to that party which is prosperous when the 
furnaces are aflame ; and ^\■hen you dig coal and iron 
and silver; when everybody has enough to eat ; when 
everybody is happy ; when the children are all going 
to school, [applause ;] and when joy covers my Nation 
as with a garment. [Applause.] That party which 
is prosperous, then, is my party. 

Now, then, I have been telling you what I am for. 
I am for free speech, and so ought you to be. I am 
for an honest ballot, and if you are not, you ought to 
be. I am for the collection of the revenue. I am for 
honest money. I am for the idea that this is a Nation 
forever. [Great applause.] I believe in protecting 
American labor. [Great applause. J I want the shield 
of my country above every anvil, above every furnace, 
above every cunning head and above every deft hand 
of American labor. [Applause.] 

Now, then, what section of this country will be the 
more apt to carry these ideas into execution ? What 
party will be the more apt to achieve these grand and 
splendid things ? Honor bright? [Laughter.] Now 
we have not only to choose between sections of the 
country ; we have to choose between parties. Here 
is the Democratic party, and I admit there are thou- 
sands of good Democrats who went to the war, and 
some of those that stayed at home were good men ; 
and I want to ask you, and I want you to tell me in 
rL^ply what that party did during the war when the 
War Democrats were away from home. What did 
they do ? That is the question. I say to you that 
e\ery man who tried to tread our flag out of heav-cn 
was a Democrat. [Applause.] The men who wrote 
the ordinances of secession, who fired upon Fort 



SPEECH OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. 



59 



Snmter ; the men who starved our soldiers, who fed 
them with the crumbs that the worms luid devoured 
before, they were Democrats. The keepers of Libby, 
the keepers of Andcrsonville were Democrats ; 
Libby and Andersonville, the two mighty wings 
that will bear the memory of the Confederacy to 
eternal infamy. And when some poor, emaciated | 
Union patriot, driven to insanity by famine, saw, in 
an insane dream, the face of his mother, and she 
beckoned him, and he followed, hoping to press her 
lips once again again!^t his fevered face, and when he 
stt'ppL'rt one stop beyond the dead line the wretch 
that put the bullet through his loving, throbbing 
heart was a Democrat. [Great applause.] The men 
who wished to scatter yellow fever in the North, and 
who tried to fire the great cities of the North, know- 
ing that the serpents of flame would devour the 
women and babes— they were all Democrats. [Ap- 
plause.] He who said that the greenback would 
never be paid, and he who slandered sixty cents out 
of every dollar of the nation's promises, were Demo- 
crats. Who were joyful when your brothers and 
your sons and your fathers lay dead on a field of bat- 
tle, that the country had lost ? They were Demo- 
crats. The men who wept when the old banner 
floated in triumph above the ramparts of Rebellion— 
—they were Democrats. You know it. The men 
who wept when slavery was destroyed, who believed 
slavery to be a Divine institution, who regarded 
bloodhounds as apostles and missionaries, and who 
wept at the funeral of that infernal institution— they 
were Democrats. Bad company— bad company ! 
[Laughter and applause.] 

And let me implore all the young men here not to 
join that p.arty. Do not give new blood to that insti- 
tution. The Democratic party has a yellow passport. 
On one side it says "dangerous." They imagine 
they have not changed, and that is because they have 
not intellectual growth. That party was once the 
enemy of my country, was once the enemy of our 
flag, and more than that, it was once the enemy of 
human liberty, and that party to-night is not willing 
that the citizens of the Republic should exercise all 
their rights irrespective of their color. And allow 
me to say right here that I am opposed to that party. 
[Loud applause.] 

Candidates of the Two Parties. 

We have not only to choose between parties, but to 
choose between candidates. The Democracy have 
put forward as the bearers of their standard General 
Hancock and William 11. English. [Hisses.] No, 
no, no. They will soon be beyond hissing. [Roars 
of laughter.] But let us treat them respectfully. 
When I am by the side of the dying, I never throw 
up their crimes. 1 feel to-night as though standing 
by the open grave of the Democratic party, [great 
laughter,] and allow me to say, that I feel as well as 
could be expected. [Much laughter.] 

That party has nominated General Winfleld S. Han- 
cock, and I am told that he is a good soldier. I ad- 
mit it. I don't know whether he is or not. I admit it. 
[Laughter.] That was his rei)utation before he was 
nominated, and I am willing to let him have the ad- 
vantage of all he hud before he was nominated. He 
had a conversation with General Grant. [Great ap- 



plause.] It was a time when ho had been appointed 
at the head of the Departuirut of the tiulf. In th.at 
conversation he stated to Genera) Grant that he was 
opposed to " nigger dounnation." Grantsaid to him, 
"We must obey the laws of Congress. [Applause.] 
We are soldiers." And that meant, the military is 
not above the civil authority. [Applause] And 1 
tell you to-night, that the army and the navy arc 
the right and left hands of the civil power. [Ap- 
plause.] Grant said to him : " Three or four nnllion 
e.x-slaves, without property and without education. 
cannot dominate over thirty or forty millions of 
white people, with education and with projierty." 
General Hancock replied to that : " I am opjiosed to 
'nigger domination.'" Allow me to say that I do 
not believe any man fit for the Presidency of the 
great Republic who is capable of insulting a down- 
trodden race. [Great applause.] 1 never meet a 
negro that I do not feel like asking his forgiveness 
for the wrongs that my race has inflicted on his. [Ap- 
plause.] I remember that from the white man he 
received for 200 years agony and tears ; I remember 
that my race sold a child from the agonized breast of 
a mother ; I remember that my race trampled, with 
the feet of greed, ui)on all the holy relations of life ; 
and I do not feel like insulting the colored man ; I 
feel rather like asking the forgiveness of his race for 
the crimes that my race have put upon him. 
"Nigger domination." What a fine scabbard that 
makes for the sword of Gettysburg. It won't do. 
[Laughter.] 

What is General Hancock for, besides the Presi- 
dency? [Laughter.] How does he stand upon the 
great questions affecting American prosperity ? [Cries 
of " Give it up." " Give us an easier one." Laugh- 
ter.] He told us the other day that the tarill is a 
local question. The tariff afl:ects every man and 
woman, live they in hut, hovel or palace ; it affects 
every man that has a back to be covered or a stomach 
to be tilled, and yet he says it is a local question. 
[Laughter.] So is death. [Laughter.] He also told 
us that he heard that question discussed once, in 
Pennsylvania. [Great laughter.] He must have been 
"eavesdropping." [Great laughter.] And he tells 
us that his doctrine of the tariff will continue as long 
as Nature lasts. [Laughter.] Then Senator Ran- 
dolph wrote him a letter. I don't know whether 
Senator Randolph ansvvered it or not ; [laughter ;] 
but that answer was worse than the first interview ; 
and I understand now that another letter is going 
through a period of incubation at Governor's Island, 
upon the great subject of the tariff. It won't do. 
[Applause and laughter.] 

They say one thing they are sure of, he is opposed 
to paying Southern pensions and Southern claims. 
He says that a man that fought against this Govern- 
ment has no right to a pension. Good 1 I say a 
man that fought against this Government has no 
right to office. [Loud and prolonged applause.] If 
a man cannot earn a pension by tearing our flag out 
of the sky, he cannot earn power. [A voice—" How 
about Longstrcet ?"] Longstreet has repented of 
what he did. Longstrcet admits that he was wrong. 
And there was no braver ofUcer in the Southern Con- 
federacy. [Applause.] Every man of the South who 
will say, "I nuide a mistake"— I don't want him to 
say that he knew he was wrong— all I ask him to say 



60 



SPEECH OF ROBERT G. IXGERSOLL. 



is, that he now thinks he was wrong, and every man 
of the South to-day who says lie was wrong, and who 
says from this day forward, lienccforth and forever, 
he is for this being a Nation, I will talie him by the 
hand. [Renewed applause.] But while he is at- 
tempting to do at the ballot-box what he failed to ac- 
complish upon the field of battle, I am against him ; 
while he uses a Northern General to bait a Southern 
trap, I won't bite. I will forgive men when they 
deserve to be forgiven ; but while they insist that 
they were right, while they insist that State 
Sovereignty is the proper doctrine, I am opposed 
to their climbing into power. 

Hancock says that he will not pay these claims ; he 
agrees to veto a bill that his party may pass ; he agrees 
in advance that he will defeat a party that he expects 
will elect him ; he, in effect, says to the people, " You 
can't trust that party, but you can trust me." He 
says, "Look at them ; I admit they arc a hungry 
lot ; I admit that they haven't had a bite in twenty 
years ; I admit that au ordinary famine is satiety 
compared to the hunger they feel. But between that 
vast appetite known as the Democratic party and the 
public treasury 1 will throw the shield of my veto." 
[Applause.] No man has a right to say in advance 
what he will veto, any more than a judge has a right 
to say in advance how he will decide a case. [Ap- 
plause.] The veto power is a distinction with which 
the Constitution has clothed the Executive, and no 
President has a right to say that he will veto until he 
has heard both sides of the question. [Applause.] 
But he agrees in advance, [Laughter.] 

I would rather trust a party than a man. Death 
may veto Hancock, and death has not been a success- 
ful politician in the United States. [Laughter.) 
Tyler, Fillmore, Andy Johnson— [laughter]— I don't 
wish Death to elect any more Presidents ; and if he 
does, and if Hancock is elected, William H. English 
becomes President of the United States. [Hisses.] 
No, no, no I All I need to say about him is simply 
to pronounce his name ; [laughter;] that is all. You 
don't want him. Whether the many stories that have 
been told about him are true or not I don't know, and 
I will not give currency to a solitary word against the 
reputation of an American citizen unless 1 know it to 
be true. [Applause, and cries of "Good !"] What 
I have got against him is what he has done in public 
life. When Charles Sumner, [loud applause,] that 
great and splendid publicist— Charles Sunnier, tlie 
philanthropist, one who spoke to the conscience of 
his time and to the history of the future— when he 
stood up in the L'nited Slates Senate, and made a 
great and glorious plea for human liberty, there crept 
into the Senate a villain and struck hiiu down, as 
though he had been a wild beast. That man was a 
member of Congress, and when a resolution was in- 
troduced in the House to expel that man, William H. 
English voted "No." [Hisses.] All the stories in 
the world could not add to the infamy of that public 
act. [Applause.] That is enough for me, and what- 
ever his private life may be— let it be that of au an- 
gel—never, never, never will I ^ote for a man that 
would defend the assassin of free speech. [Applause.] 
General Hancock, they tell me, is a statesman ; 
[laughter ;] that what little time he has had to spare 
from war he has given to the tariff, [laughter,] and 
what little time he could spare from the tariff he' has 



given to the Constitution of his country; showing un- 
der what circumstances a Major-General can put at de- 
fiance the Congress of the United States. It won't do. 
But while 1 am upon that si.'bject it may be well for 
me to state that he never wUV be President of the 
United States. [Loud applause.] Now, 1 say that a 
man who, in time of peace prefers peace, and pre- 
fers the avocations of peace ; a man who, in the time 
of peace, would rather look at the corn in the aii- of 
June, rather listen to the hum of bees, rather sit by 
his door with his wife and children ; the man who, 
in time of peace, loves peace, and yet when the blast 
of war flows in his ears, shoulders the musket, and 
goes to the field of war to defend his country, and 
\\hcn the war is o\er goes home, and again pursues 
the avocations of peace— that man is just as good, to 
say the least of him, as a man who in a time of pro- 
found peace makes up his mind that he would like 
to make his living killing other folks. To say the 
least of it, he is as good. 

The Republican Standard- 
Bearers. 

The Republicans have named as their standard- 
bearers James A. Garfield, [tremendous cheers, again 
and again renewed, the men standing up, waving their 
hats and the ladies tlieir handkerchiefs,] — James A. 
Garfield [cheers] and Chester A. Arthur. [Great 
cheers and applause.] James A. Garfield was a 
volunteer soldier, and he took away from the field of 
Chickamauga as much glory as any one man could 
carry. [Great applause.] He is not only a soldier — 
he is a statesman. [Applause.] He has studied and 
discussed all the great questions that affect the pros- 
perity and well-being of the American people. His 
opinions are well known, and I say to you to-night 
that there is not in this Nation, there is not in this 
Republic a man with greater brain and greater heart 
than James A. Garfield. [Great cheers.] I know 
him and I lilce him. [Applause.] I know him as 
well as any other public man, and I like him. The 
Democratic party say that he is not honest. I have 
lieen reading some Democratic papers to-day, and 
you would say that every one of their editors had a 
private sewer of his own, [laughter,] into which had 
been emptied for a hundred years the slops of hell. 
[Laughter and applause.] They tell me that James 
A. Garfield is not honest. Are you a Democrat ? 
Vour party tried to steal nearly half of this country. 
[Applause.] Your party stole the arm,:mi.nt of a 
Nation. Your party was willing to live upon the un- 
paid labor of four millions of people. [Applause. 1 
You have no right to the floor for the purpose of 
making a motion of honesty. [Appl.ause.] Sit down. 
[Laughter and applause.] James A. Ciarfield has 
been at the head of the most important committees 
of Congress ; he is a member of the most important 
one of the whole House. He has no peer in the 
Congress of the United States. [Applause.] And 
you know it. He is the leader of the House. With 
one wave of his hand he can take millions from the 
pocket of one industry and put it into the pocket of 
another ; with a motion of his hand he could have 
made himself a man of wealth, but he is to-night a 
poor man. [Applause.] But he is rich in honor, 
[applause,] in integrity he is wealthy, [applause,] 



SPEECH OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. 



61 



and in brain he is a millionaire. [Great applause.] 
I know him and I like him. [Cheers.] He is as 
genial as May and he is as generous as Autumn. 
[Applause.] And the men for whom he has done 
unnumbered favors, the men whom he had pity 
enough not to destroy with an argument, the men 
who, with his great generosity, he has allowed, 
intellectually, to live, are now throwing filth at the 
reputation of that great and splendid man. [Cheers.] 

Several ladies and gentlemen were passing a muddy 
place around which were gathered ragged and 
wrerched urchins. And these little ^\Tetches began 
to throw mud at them ; and one gentleman said, 
" If you don't stop I will throw it back at you." And 
a little fellow said, "You can't do it without dirtying 
your hands." [Laughter and applause.] And it 
doesn't hurt us, anyway. [Renewed laughter.] 

In ever was more profoundly happy than on the 
night of that 12th day of October, when I found that 
between an honest and a kingly man and his ma- 
ligncrs, two great States had thrown their shining 
shields. [Great applause.] When Ohio said, " Gar- 
field is my greatest son, and there never has been 
raised in the cabins of Ohio a grander man," [tre- 
mendous and prolonged applause and cheers ;] and 
when Indiana [loud cheers] — and when Indiana held 
up her hands and said, "Allow me to endorse that 
verdict," I was profoundly happy, because that said 
to me, " Garfield will carry every Northern State ;" 
that said to me, "The solid South will be confronted 
by a great and splendid North." [Cheers.] 

I know Garfield — I like him. [Laughter and cheers.] 
Some people have said, "How is it that you support 
Garfield, when he was a minister ?" [Laughter.] 
"How is it that you support Garfield, when he is a 
Christian ?" I will tell you. There are two reasons. 
The first is, I am not a bigot ; and secondly, James 
A. Garfield is not a bigot. He believes in giving to 
every other human being every right he claims for 
himself. He believes in an absolute divorce between 
Church and State. He believes that every religion 
should rest upon its morality, upon its reason, upon 
its persuasion, upon its goodness, upon its charity, 
and that love should never appeal to the sword of 
civil power. He disagrees with me in many things ; 
but in the one thing, that the air is free for all, we do 
agree. I want to do equal and exact justice every- 
where. I want the world of thought to be without a 
chain, without a wall. James A. Garfield, believing 
with me as he does, disagreeing with me as he does, 
is perfectly satisfactory to me. I know him and I 
like him. 

Men are to-day blackening his reputation, who are 
not fit to blacken his shoes. [Applause.] He is a 
man of brain. Since his nomination he must have 
made forty or fifty speeches, and every one has been 
full of manhood and genius. He has not said a word 
that has not strengthened him with the American 
people. He is the first candidate who has been free 
to express himself, and who has ne\er made a mis- 
take. [Great applause.] I will tell you why he don't 
make a mistake ; because he spoke from the inside 
out. [Applause.] Because he was guided by the 
glittering Northern Star of principle. Lie after lie 
has been told about him. Slander after slander has 
been hatched and put in the air, with its little short 



wings, to fly its dirty day, and the last lie is a forgery. 
[Great applause.] 

I saw to-day the fac simile of a letter that they pre- 
tend he wrote upon the Chinese question. I know 
his writing ; I know his signature ; I am well ac - 
quaintcd with his viTiting. I know handwriting, and 
I tell yon to-night that letter and that signature are 
forgeries. [Long and continued applause.] A for- 
gery for the benefit of the Pacific States ; a forgery 
for the purpose of convincing the American working- 
man that Garfield is without heart. I tell you, my 
fellow citizens, that cannot take from him a vote. 
[Applause.] But Ohio pierced their centre and 
Indiana rolled up both flanks, and the rebel line can- 
not reform with a forgery for a standard. [Ap- 
plause.] They are gone. [Laughter.] 

Not Preaching a Gospel of 
Hate. 

Now, some people say to me, " How long are you 
going to preach the doctrine of hate ?" I never did 
preach it. In many States of this Union it is a crime 
to be a Republican. I am going to preach my 
doctrine until every American citizen is permitted to 
express his opinion and vote as he may desire in 
every State of this Union. [Applause.] I am going 
to preach my doctrine until this is a civilized country. 
That is all. I will treat the gentlemen of the South 
precisely as we do the gentlemen of the North. I 
want to treat every section of the country precisely 
as we do ours. I want to improve their rivers 
and their harbors ; I want to fill their land with com- 
merce ; I want them to prosper ; I want them to 
build school-houses ; I want them to open the lands 
to immigration to all people who desire to settle upon 
their soil. I want to be friends with them ; I want 
to let the past be buried forever ; I want to let by- 
gones be by-gones, but only upon the basis that we 
are now in favor of absolute liberty and eternal 
justice. [Great applause.] I am not willing to bury 
nationality or free speech in the grave for the pur- 
pose of being friends. Let us stand by our colors ; 
let the old Republican party that has made this a 
Nation— the old Republican party that has saved the 
financial honor of this country — let that party stand 
by its colors. 

Let that party say, "Free speech forever!" Let 
that party say, "An honest ballot forever." Let that 
party say, " Honest money forever ; the Nation and 
the flag forever." And let that party stand by the 
great men carrying her banner, James A. Garfield 
and Chester A. Arthur. [Applause.] I had rather 
trust a party than a man. If General Garfield dies, 
the Republican party lives ; if General Garfield dies. 
General Arthur will take his place — a brave, and 
honest and intelligent gentleman, upon whom everj' 
Republican can rely. [Applause.] And if he dies, 
the Republican party lives, and as long as the Re- 
publican party does not die, the great Republic will 
live. As long as the Republican party lives, this will 
be the asylum of the world. Let me tell you, Mr. 
Irishman, this is the onlj' country on the earth where 
Irishmen have had enough to eat. Let me tell you, 
Jlr. German, that you have more liberty here than 
you had in the Fatherland. Let me tell you, all men, 
that this is the land of humanitv. 



62 



SPEECH OF ROBERT G. IXGERSOLL. 



Oh ! I love the old Republic, bound by tlio seas, 
walled by the wide air, domed by heaven's blue, and 
lit with the eternal stars. I love the Republic ; I 
love it because I love liberty. Liberty is my religion, 



and at its altar I worship and will worship. [Long- 
continued amAaiisc.]— From the Xew- I'ork Tribune 
" Extra,'' 2io. 73, Tuesday, October 26, 1880. 



The Speech o/* Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, in front of the Sub- Treasure/ 
in Wall Street, JVeio- Yoi'k City, Thursday afternoon, October 28, 1880. 



Fellow-Citizens of the Great Citt op New- 
YoEK : This is the grandest audience I ever saw. 
[Great applause.] This audience certifies that General 
James A. Garfield, [tremendous cheers,] that Gen- 
eral James A. Garfield is to be the next President of 
the United States. [Renewed cheers.] This audi- 
ence certifies that a Republican is to be the next 
Mayor of the City of New-York. [Great cheers.] 
This audience certifies that the businessmen of New- 
York understand their interests, and that the busi- 
ness men of New-Yorli are not going to let this 
country be controlled by the rebel South and the rebel 
North. [Cheers.] In 1800 the Democratic party ap- 
pealed to force ; now it appeals to fraud. [Applause.] 
In 181)0, the Democratic party appealed to the sword ; 
now it appeals to the pen. [Tremendous cheers and 
laughter.] It was treason then ; it is forgery now. 
[Great cheers.] The Democratic party cannot be 
trusted — [A voice : "No, no, it cannot !"]— with the 
property or with the honor of the people of the 
United States. [Applause.] The City of New- York 
owes a great del)t to the country. Every man that 
has cleared a farm has helped to build New- York ; 
every man who helped to build a railway helped to 
build up the palaces of this city. [Applause.] Where 
I am now spd'ftcing are the terminii of all the rail- 
waj'S in the United States. They all come here. 
New- York has been built up by the labor of the 
country, [applause,] and New- York owes it to the 
country to protect the best interest of the country. 
[Applause.] The farmers of Illinois depend upon 
the merchants, the brokers and the bankers, upon 
the gentlemen of New- York, to beat the rabble of 
New-York. [Great cheers.] You owe to yourselves ; 
you owe to the great Republic ; and this city that 
does the business of a hemisphere — this city that will 
in ten years be the financial centre of this world, 
[applause,] owes it to itself to be true to the great 
principles that have allowed it to exist and flourish. 
[Great applause.] 

The Republicans of New- York ought to say that 
this shall be forever a free country. The Republicans 
of New- York ought to say that free speech shall for- 
ever be held sacred in the United States. [Applause.] 
The Republicans of New-York ought to see that the 
party that defended the Nation shall still remain in 
power. [Applause.] The Republicans of New- York 
should see that the flag is safely held by the hands 
that defended it in war. [Applause.] The Republi- 
cans of New-York know that the prosperity of the 
country depends upon good government, and they 
also know that good government means protection to 
the people — rich and poor, black and white. [Ap- 
plause.] The Republicans of New-York know that 
a black friend is better than a white enemy. ["Good ! 



good !" and cheers.] They know that a negro while 
fighting for his Government is better than any white 
man who will fight against it. [Great cheers.] The 
Republicans of New-York know that the colored 
party in the South, which allows every man to vote 
as he pleases, is better than any white man who is 
opposed to allowing a negro to cast his honest vote. 
[Applause.] A black man, in favor of liberty, is bet- 
ter than a white man in favor of slavery. [Applause.] 
The Republicans of New-York must be true to theu" 
friends. [Applause.] This Government means to 
protect all its citizens, at home and abroad, or it be- 
comes a by-word in the mouths of the Nations of the 
world. 

Now, what do we want to do ? [A voice — " Vote 
for Garfield." Great cheers and laughter.] Of 
course. We are going to have an election next Tues- 
day, and every Republican knows why he is going to 
vote the Republican ticket ; while every j)emocrat 
votes his without knowing why. [Great laughter.] 
A Republican is a Republican because he loves Some- 
thing ; a Democrat is a Democrat because he hates 
something. [Great applause.] A Republican be- 
lieves in progress ; a Democrat in retrogression. A 
Democrat is a " has been." He is a " used to be." 
[Great laughter.] The Republican party lives on 
hope ; the Democratic on memory. [Renewed laugh- 
ter.] The Democrat keeps his back to the sun and 
imagines himself a great man because he casts a 
great shadow. [Laughter.] Now there are certain 
things we want to preserve— that the business men 
of New- York want to preserve— and, in the first 
place, we want an honest ballot. [Applause.] And 
where the Democratic party has power there never 
has been an honest ballot. You take the worst ward 
in this city, and there is where you will find the 
greatest Democratic majority. [Applause.] You 
know it, [laughter,] and so do I. [Laughter.] There 
is not a university in the North, East or West that 
has not in it a Republican majority. [Applause.] 
There is not a penitentiary in the United States [tre- 
mendous laughter and cheers : cries of " good ! 
good ! "]— how did you know what I was going to 
gay ?— [Great cheers and laughter]- there is not a 
penitentiary, I say, [great cheers,] in the United 
States that lias not in it a Democratic majority, [out- 
bursts of laughter,] and they know it. [Great laugh- 
ter.] Two years ago about 283 convicts were in the 
Penitentiary of Maine. Out of that whole number 
there was one Republican, [laughter,] and only one. 
[A voice— "Who was the man?"] Well, I don't 
know, but he broke out. [Great laughter.] lie said 
that he didn't mind being in tiie Penitentiary, but the 
company was a little more then he could stand. [Re- 
newed laughter.] 



SPEECH OF ROBERT G. IXGERSOLL. 



63 



The Party that Needs the 
" Change." 

You cannot rely upon that party for an honest bal- 
lot. Every law that has been passed in this country 
in the last twenty years to throw a safeguard around 
the ballot-box, has been passed by the Republican 
party. [Applause.] Every law that has been de- 
feated has been defeated by the Democratic party. 
[Applause] And you know it [Laughter.] Unless 
we have an honest ballot the days of the Republic 
are numbered ; and the only way to get an honest 
ballot is to beat the Democratic party forever. 
[Cheers.] And that is what we are going to do. 
[Applause.] That party can never carry its record ; 
that party is loaded down with the infamies of 
twenty years ; yes, that party is loaded down with 
the infamies of fifty years. [Applause.] It will 
never elect a President in this world. I give notice 
to the Democratic party to-day that it has got to 
change its name before the people of the United 
States will change the administration. [Cheers.] 
You will ha^^e to change your natures ; [applause ;] 
you will have to change your personnel, and you 
will have to get enough Republicans to join you 
and tell yoa how to run a campaign. [Applause.] 
If you want an honest ballot — and every honest 
man does — then you will vote to keep the Republi- 
can party La power. [Applause.] What else do 
you want * Yoa want honest money, [applause,] 
and I say to the merchants and to the bankers 
and to the brokers, the only party that will give 
you honest money is the party that resumed specie 
payments. [Applause.] The only party that will 
give you honest money is the party that has said a 
greenback is a broken promise until it is redeemed 
with gold. [Cheers.] You can only trust the party 
that has been honest in disaster. [Applause.] From 
1863 to 18T9 — sixteen long years— the Republican 
party was the party of honor and principle, and the 
Republican party saved the honor of the United 
States, [Cheers.] And you know it [Applause.] 
During that time the Democratic party did what it 
could to destroy our credit at home and abroad. 
[Applause.] We are not only in favor of tree speech 
and an honest ballot and honest money, but we go 
in for law and order. [Applause.] What part of 
this country belie^•es in free speech — the South or 
the North? [A voice— "the North."] The South 
would never give free speech to the country ; there 
was no free speech in the City of New- York until the 
Republican party got into power, [Applause,] The 
Democratic party has not intelligence to know that 
free speech is the germ of this Republic [Applause. ] 
The Democratic party cares little for free speech 
because it has no argument to make. [Laughter.] 
No reasons to ofEer. [Applause.] Its entire argu- 
ment is summed up and ended in three words — 
"Hurrah for Hancock." [Great laughter.] The 
Republican party believes in free speech because it 
has got something to say ; because it believes in 
argument ; because it believes in moral suasion ; 
because it believes in education. [Great applause.] 
Any man that does not believe in free speech is a 
barbarian. [Applause.] Any State that does not 
support it is not a civilized State. [Applause.] 



What Republicanism Means. 

I have a right to express my opinion, and the right 
in common with every other human being, and I am 
willing to give to every other human being the right 
that I claim for myself. [Applause.] Republicanism 
says that out upon the great intellectual sea there is 
room for every sail ; Republicanism says that in the 
intellectual air there is room enough for every wing. 
[Applause.] Republicanism means justice in politics. 
Republicanism means progi-css in civilization. [Ap- 
plause.] Republicanism means that every man shall 
be an educated patriot and a gentleman. [Applause.] 
And I want to say to you to day that the Republican 
jiarty is the best that ever existed. [Applause.] I 
want to say to you to-day, that it is an honor to 
belong to it [Applause.] It is an honor to have 
belonged to it for twenty years ; it is an honor to 
belong to the party that elected Abraham Lincoln 
President [Great applause.] And let me say to you 
that Lincoln was the greatest, the best, the purest, 
the kindest man that has ever sat in the Presidential 
chair. [Great applause.] It is an honor to belong to 
the Republican party that gave 4,000,000 of men the 
rights of freemen ; it is an honor to belong to the 
party that broke the shackles from 4,000.000 of men, 
women and children. [Great applause.] It is an 
honor to belong to the party that declared that blood- 
hounds were not the missionaries of civilization. 
[Applause.] It is an honor to belong to the party 
that said it was a crime to steal a babe from its 
mother's breast. [Applause.] It is an honor to 
belong to the party that swore that this is a Nation 
forever, one and indivisible. [Great applause.] It 
is an honor to belong to the party that elected V. S. 
Grant President of the United States. [Tremendous 
cheers.] It is an honor to belong to the party that 
issued thousands and thousands of millions of dollars 
in promises — that issued promises until they became 
as thick as the withered leaves of winter ; an honor 
to belong to the party that issued them to put down 
a reljellion ; an honor to belong to the party that put 
it down ; an honor to belong to the party that had 
the moral courage and honesty to make every one of 
the promises, made in war, in peace as good as shin- 
ing, glittering gold. [Great applause.] And I teli 
you that if there is another life, and if there is a day 
of judgment, all you need say upon that solemn 
occasion is, "I was in life and in my death a good 
square Republican." [Roars of laughter and great 
applause.] 

The Doctrine of State Rights. 

I hate the docti-ine of State Sovereignty because it 
fostered State pride ; liecanse it fostered the idea that 
it is more to be a citizen of a State than a citizen of 
this glorious country. [Applause.] I love the whole 
country. I like New-Yo>rk because it is a part of the 
country, and I like the country because it has got 
New-York in it [Great applause.] I am not standing 
here to-day because the flag of New- York floats over 
my head, but because that flag for which more heroic 
blood has been shed than for any other flag that is 
kissed by the air of heaven waves forever over my 
head, [Great applause.] That is the reason I am 
here. The doctrine of State Sovereignty was ap- 
pealed to in defence of the slave trade ; the next time 



64 



SPEECH OP EGBERT G. INGEESOLL. 



in defence of the slave trade as between the States ; 
the next time in favor of the fugitive slave law ; and 
if there is a Democrat in favor of the fugitive slave 
law he should be ashamed [applause]— if not of him- 
self—of the ignorance of the time in which he lived. 
[Laughter.] That fugitive slave law was a compro- 
mise so that we might be friends of the South. They 
said in 1850-'.53 : "If you catch the slave we will be 
your friend ;" and they tell us now : " If you let 
us trample upon the rights of the black man in the 
South, we will be your friend." I don't wan't their 
friendship on such terms. [Applause.] I am a friend 
of my friend, and an enemy of my enemy. [Applause.] 
That is my doctrine. We might as well be honest 
about it. [Laughter.] Under that doctrine of State 
Rights, such men as I see before me— bankers, brok- 
ers, merchants, gentlemen— were expected to turn 
themselves into hounds and chase the poor fugitive 
that had been lured by the love of liberty and guided 
by the glittering Northern star. [Great applause.] 

The Democratic party wanted you to keep your 
trade with the South, no matter to what depths of 
degradation you had to sink, and the Democratic 
party to-day says if you want to sell your goods to the 
Southern people, you must throw your honor and 
manhood into the streets. [Applause. Cries of 
" No ; never."] The patronage of the splendid North 
is enough, to support the City of New-York. [Ap- 
plause.] 

In Favor of Protection. 

There is another thing. Why is the city here filled 
with palaces, covered with wealth ? Because Ameri- 
can labor has been protected. [Great applause.] I 
am in favor of protection to American labor, every- 
where. [Applause.] I am in favor of protecting 
American brain and muscle ; I am in favor of giving 
scope to American ingenuity and American skill. 
[Great cheers.] We want a market at home, and 
the only way to have it is to have mechanics at home ; 
and the only way to have mechanics is to have protec- 
tion ; and the only way to have protection is to vote the 
Republican ticket. [Great cheers.] You business men 
of New- York know that General Garfield [tremendous 
cheers] understands these great— [A voice— "Three 
cheers for General Garfield ! " These were given 
with vigor.] I was going to say that he knows what 
the tariff means ; he rmderstands the best interests 
not only of New- York, but the entire country. ] Ap- 
plause.] And you want to stand by the men who will 
stand by you. What does a simple soldier know 
about the wants of the City of New- York ? What 
does he know about the wants of this great and 
splendid country ? If he does not know more about 
it than he knows about the tariff, he doesn't know 
much. [Great laughter.] I don't like to hit the 
dead. [Renewed laughter.] My hatred stops with 
the grave, and I tell you we are going to bury the De- 
mocratic party next Tuesday. [Cheers.] The pulse 
is feeble now, [laughter,] and if that party proposes 
to take advantage of the last hour, it is time that it 
goes into the repenting business. [Great laughter.] 
Nothing pleases me better than to see the condition 
of that party to-day. What do the Democrats know 
on the subject of the tariff. They are frightened ; 
they are ratting. [Great laughter.] They swear 



their plank and platform meant nothing. They say 
in effect : " When we put that in we lied ; and now, 
having made that confession, we hope you will have 
perfect confidence in us from this out." [Great 
cheers and laughter.] Hancock says that the object 
of the party is to get the tariff out of politics. That 
is the reason, I suppose, -why they put that plank in 
the platform. [Laughter.] I presume he regards the 
tariff as a little local issue, but I tell you to-day that 
the great question of protecting American labornever 
will be taken out of politics. [Applause.] As long 
as men work, as long as the laboring man has a wife 
and family to support, just so longwillhe vote for the 
man that will protect his wages. [" Good, good," 
and cheers.] And you can no more take it out of 
politics than you can take the question of Govern- 
ment out of politics. [Cheers.] I don't want any 
question taken out of politics. [Applause.] I want 
the people to settle these questions for themselves, 
and the people of this country are capable of doing 
it. [Great cheers.] If you don't believe it, read the 
returns from Ohio and Indiana. [Great cheers.] 
There are other persons who would take tlie question 
of office out of politics. [Great laughter.] Well, 
when we get the tariff and office both out of politics, 
then, I presume, we will see two parties on the same 
side. It won't do. [Laughter.] 

David A. Wells has come to the rescue of the 
Democratic party on the tariff, and shed a few pa- 
thetic tears over scrap iron. But it won't do. 
[Laughter.] You cannot run this country on scraps. 
[Laughter.] We believe in the tariff because it gives 
skilled labor good pay. We believe in the tariff be- 
cause it allows the laboring man to have something 
to eat. We believe in the tariff because it keeps the 
hands of the producer close to the mouth of the de- 
vourers. [Applause.] We believe in the tariff be- 
cause it developed American brain ; because it builds 
up our towns and cities ; because it makes Americans 
self-supporting ; because it makes us an independent 
Nation. [Applause.] And- we believe in the tariff 
because the Democratic party don't. [Laughter.] 
That plank in the Democratic party was intended for 
a dagger to assassinate the prosperity of the North. 
The Northern people have become aroused, and that 
is the plank that is broken in the Democratic plat- 
form ; and that plank was wide enough A\hen it 
broke to let even Hancock through. [Laughter.] 

Desperate Resorts of the 
Democrats. 

Gentlemen, they are gone. [" Honor bright ?"] 
They are gone— honor bright. [Laughter.] Look at 
the desperate mesns that have been resorted to by 
the Democratic party, driven to the madness of des- 
peration. Not satisfied w'ith having worn the tongue 
of slander to the very tonsils, not satisfied with at- 
tacking the private reputation of a splendid man, 
not satisfied with that, they have appealed to a crime ; 
a deliberate and infamous forgery has been com- 
mitted. [Loud applause—" Hit him hard."] That 
forgery has been upheld by some of the leaders of 
the" Democratic party; that forgery has been de- 
fended by men calling themselves respectable. 
[" Give it to them."] Leaders of the Democratic 
party have stood by and said that they were ac- 



SPEECH OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. 



65 



quainted with the handwriting of James A. Garfield ; 
and that the handwriting in the forged letter was 
his, when they know that it was absolutely unlike his. 
They knew it, and no man has certified that that was 
the \\Titing of James A. Garfield who did not know 
that in his throat of throats he told a falsehood. 
[Applause.] 

Every honest man in the City of New- York ought 
to leave such a party if he belongs to it. [" Go for 
Hewitt."] Every honest man [repeated cries of " Go 
for Hewitt] ought to refuse to belong to the party 
that did such an infamous crime. [" Go for Hewitt."] 
What is the use of my going for Hewitt, when all 
New-York is going for Hewitt ? [Laughter.] And 
there is no man in this city going for Hewitt like 
Hewitt himself. 

Senator Barnum, Chairman of the Democratic Com- 
mittee, has lost control. He is gone, and I will tell 
you \\hat he puts me in mind of. There was an old 
fellow used to come into town every Saturday and 
get drunk. He had a little yoke of oxen, and the 
boys, out of pity, used to throw him into the 
wagon and start the oxen for home. Just before he 
got home they had to go dov\Ti a long hill, and the 
oxen, when they got to the brow of it, commenced to 
run. Now and then the wagon struck a stone and 
gave the old fellow an awful jolt, and that would 
wake him up. After he had looked up and had one 
glance at the cattle, he would fall helplessly back to 
the bottom, and always say, "Gee a little, if any 
thing." [Laughter.] And that is the only order that 
Barnum has been able to give for the last two weeks 
—"Gee a little," if any thing. [Laughter.] I tell 
you now, that forgery m.akes doubly sure the elec- 
tion of James A. Garfield. [Applause.] The people 
of the North believe in honest dealing ; the people 
of the North believe in free speech and in an honest 
ballot. [Applause.] The people of the North be- 
lieve that this is a Nation ; the people of the North 
hate treason ; the people of the North hate forgery; 
[tremendous cheering ;] the people of the North hate ' 
slander. The people of the North have made up 
their minds to give to General Garfield a vindication 
of which any American may be forever proud. 
[Loud applause.] 

General Garfield's Career. 

I will tell you why I am for Garfield. [Laughter.] 
I know him, and I like him. [■' Good enough."] No 
man has been nominated for the office since I was 
born, by either party, who hud more brains and more 
heart than James A. Garfield. [Loud applause.] He 
was a soldier, he is a statesman. In time of peace 
he preferred the avocations of jieace ; when the bugle 
of war blew in his ears he withdrew from his work 
and fought for the flag, [cheers,] and then he went 
back to the avocations of peace. And I say to-day 
that a man who, in a time of profound peace, makes 
up his mind that he would like to kill folks for a 
living [laughter] is no better, to say the least of it, 
than the man who loves peace in the time of peace, 
and who, \\hcn his country is attacked, rushes to the 
rescue of her flag. [Loud cheers.] 

James A. Garfield is to-day a poor man, and you 
know that there is not money enough in lliis magnifi- 
cent street to buy the honor and manhood of James 



A. Garfield. [Enthusiastic applause.] Money can- 
not make such a man, and I will swear to you that 
money cannot buy him. [Renewed applause.] James 
A. Garfield to-day wears the glorious robe of honest 
poverty. He is a poor man ; but I like to say it here 
in Wall-street ; I like to say it surrounded by the 
millions of America ; I like to say it in the midst of 
banks and bonds and stocks ; I love to say it where 
gold is piled— that, although a poor man, he is rich 
in honor, in integrity he is wealthy, and in brain he 
is a millionaire. [Loud applause.] I know him, and 
I like him. [" So do we," and renewed applause.] 
So do you all, gentlemen. Garfield was a poor boy; 
he is a certificate of the splendid form of our Govern- 
ment. Most of these magnificent buildings have 
been built by poor boys; ["That's so;"] most of 
the success of New- York began almost in poverty. 
You know it. The kings of this street were once 
poor, and they may be poor again ; [laughter ;] and 
if they are fools enough to vote for Garfield, they 
ought to be. [Loud laughter and cheers.] Garfield 
is a certificate of the splendor of our Government, 
that says to every poor boy, "All the avenues of 
honor are open to you." I know him, and I like 
him. He is a scholar ; lie is a statesman ; he was a 
soldier ; he is a patriot ; and above all, he is a mag- 
nificent man ; [loud cheers ;] and if every man in 
New-York knew him as well as I do, Garfield would 
not lose a hundred votes in this city. [" We will all 
be true to him," and cheers.] And yet this is the 
man against whom the Democratic party has been 
howling its filth ; this is the great and good man 
whom the Democrats have slandered from the daj- of 
his nomination until now ; this, the statesman, the 
soldier, the scholar, the patriot, is the man against 
whom the Democratic party was willing to commit 
the crime of forgery. 

Compare him with ILancock, and then compare 
General Arthur with William H. English. ["Oh !" 
" Oh !" and laughter.] If there ever was a pure Re- 
publican in this world, General Arthur is one. 
[Cheers.] Now, gentlemen, ["Give us something 
about English,"] there is no use my talking about 
English. I have made up my mind to avoid unpleas- 
ant subjects. [Laughter] 

What would follow Hancock's 
Election. 

You know in Wall-street there are some men always 
prophesying disaster ; there are some men aUv;.ys 
selling "short." [Laughter.] That is what the 
Democratic party is doing to-day. You kno^\■ as well 
as I do that if the Democratic party succeeds, every 
kind of property in the United States will depreciate. 
[" That's so ;" "true enough."] You know it. There 
is not a man on the street who, if he kne^v Hancock 
was to be elected, would not sell the stocks and 
bonds of every railroad in the LTuitcd States "short." 
[Laughter.] I dare any broker here to deny it. There 
is not a man in Wall or Broad streets, or in New- 
York, but what knows the election of Hancock will 
depreciate every share of railroad stock, every rail- 
road bond, every Government bond in the I'nited 
States of America. And if you know that. I say it is 
a crime to vote for Hancock and English. [Loud 
cheers.] 



66 



SPEECH OF KOBEKT G. INGERSOLL. 



I belong to a party that is prosperous when the 
country is prosperous. That's me. [Laughter.] I 
belong to the party that believes in good crops ; that 
is glad when a fellow finds a goldmine ; thatrejoices 
when there are forty bushels of wheat to the acre ; 
tliat laughs when every railroad declares dividends ; 
that claps both its hands when every investment 
pays ; when the rain falls for the fai-mer, when the 
dew lies lovingly upon the grass. I belong to the 
party that is happy when the people are happy ; 
when the laboring man gets $3 a day ; when he has 
roast beef on his table ; [laughter ;] when he has a 
carpet on the floor ; when he has a picture of Gar- 
field on the wall. [Laughter and applause.] I be- 
long to the party that is happy when everybody smiles ; 
when we have plenty of money, good horses, [that's 
you,] good carriages ; when our wives are happy and 
our children feel glad. [Loud applause.] I belong 
to the party whose banner floats side by side with the 
great flag of the country ; tliat does not grow fat on 
defeat. [Laugliter.] The Democratic party is a party 
of famine ; it is a good friend of an early frost ; 
[laughter ;] it believes in the Colorado beetle and in 
the weevil. [Renewed laughter.] When the crops 
are bad the Democratic mouth opens from ear to ear 
with smiles of joy ; it is in partnership witli bad 
hick ; a friend of empty pockets ; rags help it. I 
am on the other side. The Democratic party is tlie 
party of darkness ; I belong to the party of sunshine, 
and to the party that even in darkness believes that 
the stars are shining and waiting for us. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Why the Republican Party- 
Should be Supported. 

Now, gentlemen, I have endeavored to give you a 
tew reasons for voting the Republican ticket, and I 
have given enough to satisfy any reasonable man. 
And you know it. [Laughter.] Don't you go with 
the Democratic party, young man. You have got a 
character to make. You cannot make it, as the 
Democratic party does, by passing a resolution. 
[Laughter.] If your father voted the Democratic 
ticket that is disgrace enough for one family. [Roars 
of laughter.] Tell the old man that you can stand it 
no longer. Tell the old gent that you have made 
np your mind to stand with the party of human pro- 
gress ; and if he asks you why yon cannot vote the 
Democratic ticket, you tell him : "Every man that 
tried to d<^stroy the Government, every man that shot 
at the holy flag in lieavcn, every man that starved 
our soldiers, every keeper of Libby, Andersonville 
and Salisbury, every man that wanted to bum the 
negro, every one that wanted to scatter yellow fever 
in the North, every man that opposed human liberty, 
that regarded the auction-block as an altar, and the 
howling of the bloodhounds as the music of the 
Union, every man who wept o\-er t'.ie corpse of 
slavery, that thought lashes on the naked back were 
a legal tender for labor performed, every one willing 
to rob a mother of her child— every solitary one ^\•as 
a Democrat." [Applause.] 

Tell him you cannot stand that party. Tell him 
you have to go with the Republican party ; and if he 
asks you why, tell him it destroyed slavery ; it pre- 
served the Union ; it paid the National debt ; it 



made our credit as good as that of any nation on the 
earth. ["Better," and applause.] Tell him it makes a 
four per cent, bond >vorth §1 . 10 ; that it satisfies the 
demands of the highest civilization ; that it made it 
possible for every greenback to hold up its hand 
and swear : " I know that my Redeemer liveth." 
[Laughter and applause.] Tell the old man that 
the Republican party preserved the honor of the 
Nation ; that it believes in education ; that it 
looks upon the school-house as a cathedral. [Ap- 
plause.] Tell him that the Republican party be- 
lieves in absolute intellectual liberty, in absolute 
religious freedom, in human rights, and that hu- 
man rights rise above States. Tell him that the 
Republican party believes in humanity, justice, hu- 
man equality, and that the Republican party believes 
this a Nation for e\'cr and ever ; [applause ;] that 
an honest bnllot is the breath of the Republic's life ; 
[••good, good ;"] that honest money is the blood of 
the Republic, and that nationality is the great throb- 
bing beat of the heart of the Republic. [Great 
cheers.] Tell him that ; and tell him that you are 
going to stand by the flag that the patriots North 
carried upon the battle-field of death. [Cheers.] Tell 
him you are going to be tructo the martyred dead ; 
that you are going to vote exactly as Lincoln would 
have voted were he living. ["Good, good, " and 
cheers.] Tell him that every traitor dead, were he 
living now, there would issue from his lips of dust, 
" Humih for Hancock ; " [laughter ;] that could 
every patriot rise he would cry for Garfield and 
liberty, [cheers.] for union and for human progress 
everywhere. [Great cheers.] Tell him that the 
South seeks to secure by the ballot what it lost by 
the bayonet ; [" No, no, never I "] to whip by the bal- 
lot those who fought it in the field. But we saved 
the country, and we have got the heart and brains to 
take care of it. [Cheers.] I will tell you what we 
are going to do. We are going to treat them in the 
South just as well as we treat the people in the 
North. [Great cheers.] Victors cannot aCord to 
have malice. [Cheers.] The North is too magnani- 
mous to have hatred. [Cheers.] We will treat the 
Sonth precisely as we treat the Nortli. [Applause.] 
There are thousands of good people there. [Good ! 
good ! and cheers.] Let us give them money to im- 
prove their rivers and harbor.s ; I want to see the 
sails of their commerce filled with the breezes of 
prosperity ; [cheers ;] their fences rebuilt ; [ap- 
plause ;] their houses painted. [" Good I good ! "] I 
■want to see their towns prosperous ; I want to see 
school-houses m every to^-n ; ["Good ! good ! " and 
cheers ;] I Avant to see boolvS in the hands of every 
cliild, and papers and magazines in every house ; 
[cheers ;] I want to see all the rays of light of the 
civilization of the nineteenth century enter every 
home of the South ; [cheers ;] and in a little while 
you will see tiiat country full of good Rei)ublicans. 
[Roars of laughter.] We can afford to be kind ; 
we cannot afford to be unkind. [Cheers.] I will 
shake hands cordially A\itli every believer in human 
liberty ; I will shake hands with every believer in 
Nationality. [Applause.] ' I will shake hands with 
every man who is the friend of the human race. 
[Cheers.] This is my doctrine. I believe in the 
great Republic ; in this magnificent country of ours. 
[Cheers.] I believe in the great people of the United 



SPEECH OF RUTHERFORD IJ. HAYES. 



07 



Stotos. [Cheers.] I believe in the muscle and brain 
of America, in the prairies and forests. I believe in 
Now- York. [Cheers.] I believe in the brain of your 
city. I believe that you know enough to vote the 
Republican ticket. [Great applause.] I believe tliat 
you are grand enough to stand by the country that 



has stood by yon. [Cheers.J But whatever you do, 
I shall never cease to thank you for the great honor 
you have conferred upon me this day. [Great and 
long continued cheering.]— i^ro/M the New-York Tri- 
bune, Friday, October 29, 1880. 



A Speech by President Hayes, delivered at Cleveland, Ohio, Thursday 

evening, Noveniher 4, 1880. 



Mr. President, Fellow-citizens, and People 
OF THE United States of all Parties and of all 
Sections : We have all many solid reasons for re- 
joicing over the result of Tuesday's election. At 
this late hour of the night and in this weather I shall 
not delay you to enumerate them. I will allude to 
one or two of tliem. We rejoice that the majority 
for Gen. Garfield is so decided, so large, that there is 
no room to question his election. You all remember 
how, four years ago, the business of the country for 
weeks and months was interrupted and almost 
suspended by the doubts incurred of the election. 
Possibly the weakest point in our system is that it 
does not adequately provide for the ascertainment 
and declaration of the result of a Presidential electio7\ 
when it is close and doubtful and disputed. And, 
therefore, my friends, it is a subject for congratula- 
tion and rejoicing by all men of all parties that this 
question is settled, and that in one or two days or 
weeks we shall all be pursuing our usual avocations, 
and business will be going on as it has been going on 
for the last six or eight months. A less important 
point, perhaps, is also that we are able to rejoice in 
the fact demonstrated by this election, that no 
amount of calumny, of personal attack upon a Presi- 
dential candidate, of really high character, affects 
him in the leaot in the judgment of the good people. 
As citizens of Cleveland, of the Western Reserve of 
Ohio, and neighbors of Gen. Garfield, we rejoice, 
because wc know that he is worthy of the success he 
lias achieved. How many and how great are the 
laurels that now encircle his brow. He stands to- 
day the Representative of the Nineteenth Congres- 
sional District, in his ninth term, his eighteenth year 
as Representative of that district, a district com- 
posed of the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Geauga ' 
and Portage, a community not surpassed in intelli- 
gence and patriotism anywhere on earth. He is 
their representative to-day, sustained by them tlirough 
all these years, elected again and again nine times, 
in spite of opposition and calumny. Slore than that, 
he is to-day Senator elect for a six years' term, a 
position that sought him, unsought by him, un- 



bbught, receiving it spontaneously and without effort, 
he is Senator from Ohio, and now the President 
elect from the 4th of March next of the United States. 
In all our history no such combination of civil honors 
\vxsQ rested upon the head of any man, and we re- 
joice, as I said, to know that he is worthy of these 
honors. 

Looking through the history of our public men we 
find that he is a model self-made man. In our his- 
tory we can see in the past Franklin, Lincoln, and 
then comes Garfield as the self-made man of the 
United States, the best illustration and example of 
what under our institutions may occur to • the 
humblest boy, the humblest child of the Republic- 
an example of what can be done where all have a fair 
start and an equal chance in the race of life. Finally, 
my friends, we rejoice because wo. feel assured that 
in the wise, firm and moderate administration of 
Gen. Garfield, our country is to attain an era of pros- 
perity not surpassed in any country on the face of the 
globe. Under his broad and liberal and generous ad- 
ministration, every section of this country will be 
fairly and justly dealt with. He will say to the mis- 
taken men of the Soutli, "You will be treated pre- 
cisely as the citizens of my own State of Ohio are to 
be treated. All we ask of you is that you shall faith- 
fully obey the Constitution as it now is, regarding the 
new parts as equal parts, and equally sacred, with the 
old." Doing this to the Administration of General 
Garfield, every liberal and generous act required on 
his part will be cheerfully and gladly done. Extend- 
ing to every State its State's Rights, he requires of 
them that they shall accord to every citizen his in- 
dividual rights. AVith this done, with harmony re- 
stored throughout the Union, throughout all classes, 
I say again that the blessings of the victory gained on 
Tuesday by you are blessings alike and equally to the 
Republicans and to the Democrats, and to the 
Southern man and to the Northern man, and to who- 
soever is a citizen of the Uni'ted States. I thank you 
for your hearing.— i^'/'ow the New- York Times, Fri- 
day, November 5, 1880. 



PATRIOTIC SENTIMENTS. 



" We are citizens of a Republic. We govern ourselves. Here no pomp of eager array 
in cliambers of royalty awaits tlie birtli of boy or girl to wield a hereditary sceptre when- 
ever death, or revolution pours on the oil of coronation. We know no sceptre save a 
majority's constitutional will. To wield that sceptre in equal share is the duty and the 
right, nay, the birthright of every citizen. The supreme, the final, the only peaceful 
arbiter here is the ballot-box ; and in that urn should be gathered, and from it should be 
sacredly recorded, the conscience, the judgnient, the intelligence of all. The right of 
free self-government has been in all ages the bright dream of oppressed humanity ; the 
sighed-for privilege to which thrones, dynasties and powers have so long blocked the way. 
France seeks it by forced marches and daring strides. Mr. Forster, Secretary for Ireland, 
tells the peerage of England it must take heed lest it fall, and Westminster and England 
ring with dread echoes of applause. But in the fullness of freedom the Republic of 
America is alone in the earth ; alone in its grandeur ; alone in its blessings ; alone in its 
promises and possibilities, and, therefore, alone in the devotion due from its citizens." — 
Senator RoscoE Conkling. 



"We have undertaken on this Continent of ours to build up a fabric of politics, in 
which the laboring man had the same share, every ignorant man had the same share, 
every feeble man had the same share in political power with the rich and the strong and 
the learned. And that system we mean to maintain ; and in order to maintain a system 
and dignity which is known nowhere else in the world, and has never been known any- 
where in the world till here and now, we mean to protect the wages of our workmen 
from competition with the pauper systems of Europe."— Hon. William M. Evarts. 



" This country is better adapted for a harmonization of interests and opinions than any 
other country of which I have any knowledge. It is adapted on the great jjrincipls of 
reciprocal interest — it is adapted to the unity of the whole population. If it were all 
North, if it were all South, if it were all East, if it were all West, the identity of inter- 
ests would create sluggishness of circulation ; but because the harvests of the South 
are one thing, and the harvests of the North are another, those of the East another, 
and the productive energies of the West another, the circulation is maintained which 
carries vigorous life throughout every part of this Union. And although we have 
a tribute paid us of its best citizens from every nation of the globe — in Europe, in Asia, 
in Africa — yet as long as liberty is being sought, and since liberty is here regulated by 
institutions ; since law and institutions in this land have been created by^he people them- 
selves, who knew the wants of the common people, I would have the emigrants find — 
wherever they come from — that for which they have pined, the want of which has nearly 
suffocated them in their own land. Because we have this vast people founded on institu- 
tutious ot liberty, designed to give scope and opportunity to every liAing man, we have 



70 PATRIOTIC SENTIMENTS. 

a population tliat is inclined to friendship, to peace, to comity of interests ; and I hold 
that no party is worthy of one single hour's regard which does not aim at the harmoni- 
zation of the interests of every part of this broad continent." — Rev. Henry Wakd 

BEECnEK. 



"If the Republican party is in favor of sectional interests, of class interests; if it 
overslaughs the laborer, whose hands are his ca^jital ; if it disregards the poor and the 
needy ; if it goes in for the rich in contempt for the poor, for the North in derogation of the 
South, for the South at a mischief toward the Korth ; if it neglects the far Pacific States ; 
if it is not a party in whose very heart is the purpose to take care of the whole nation — all 
its parts, all its interests and all its j^eople — then I cannot ask you to vote for it. But it is 
because in my very heart of hearts I believe that it is a National party, seeking not alone 
nationality by controlling the Government, but having in its genius, in its history, in its 
inspirations, in its purposes, in its platform and in all the legislation that will follow from 
it — having the interest of every section, of every class, of all conditions, North, South, 
East and West — it is for that reason that I am free to commend it to your suffrages." 
—Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 



" It is enough to say, that behind the Republican party is more than twenty years of 
steady policy of the same character which we propose to piirsue in future. I know 
what the Republican party will do. I know what James A. Garfield will do, and what, 
if he died, Chester A. Arthur will do. I know they believe in encouraging and main- 
taining American industry, and in maintaining our present system of currency. 

The Republican party took the old edifice, of which the Democrats spoke, and removed 
from it the decaying timbers of human chattelhood, and replaced them with the fullest 
guarantee of freedom. They found the old walls defaced, slimy all over with foul inscrip- 
tions. They found its presiding genius, not the great Nation that we now worship, but 
a bullying, cruel, blustering, bragging, dirt-eating sycophantic genius, carrying the Dred 
Scott decision in one hand and the Fugitive Slave Law in the other, marching, not to 
the music of the Union, but to the music of the chain and the crack of the whip, and 
the baying of the bloodhound, and the appealing and imploring cry of the pursued. 
Thank God, Lincoln Avas our chieftain, and we wiped out all these foul records, and we 
have covered them with the shining and resplendent record of 4,000,000 of slaves, lifted 
by one supreme efEort from the night of savagery and chattelhood into the clear day of 
American citizenship. The world Avitnesses it, and hails and salutes it." — gon. Emery 
A. Storrs. 



" I wish to admit thai the Republican party is not absolutely perfect. While I believe 
that it is the best party that ever existed, while I believe it has, within its organization, 
more heart, more brain, more patriotism than any other organization that ever existed 
beneath the sun, I still admit that it is not entirely perfect. I admit, in its great things, 
in its splendid efforts to preserve this Nation, in its grand effort to keep our flag in 
heaven, in its magnificent effort to free four millions of slaves, in its great and sublime 
effort to save the financial honor of this Nation, I admit that it has made some mistakes. 
In its great effort to do right it has sometimes, by mistake, done wrong. And I also 
wish to admit that the great Democratic party, in its great effort to get ofl^ce, has some- 
times by mistake done right. You see that I am inclined to be perfectly fair. I am 
going with the Republican party because it is going my A\'ay ; but if it ever turns to the 
right or left, I intend to go straight ahead,"— Col. Robert G. Ingersoll. 



PATRIOTIC SENTIMENTS. 71 

"Tlie Republican party is tlie fruit of all ages — of self-sacrifice and devotion. The 
Republican party is born of every good tiling that was ever done in this world. The 
Republican party is the result of all martyrdom of all hei'oic bloodshed for the righc. It 
is the blossom and fruit of the great world's best endeavor." — Col. Robert G. Ingeksoll. 



" I believe in the protection of American labor. The hand that holds Aladdin's lamp 
must be the hand of toil. This Nation rests upon the shoulders of its workers, and I 
Avant the American laboring man to have enough to wear ; I want him to have enough 
lo eat ; I want him to have something for the ordinary misfortunes of life ; I want him 
to have the pleasure of seeing his w^fe well-dressed ; I want him to see a few blue 
ribbons fluttering about his children ; I want him to see the flags of health flying in their 
beautiful clieelvs ; I want him to feel that this is liis country, and the shield of protection 
is above his labor." — Col. Robert G. Ingersoll. 



' ' I wish to belong to that party which is prosperous when the country is prosperous. 
I belong to that party which is not poor when the golden billows are running over the 
seas of wheat. I belong to that party that is prosperous when there are oceans of corn, 
and when the cattle are upon the thousand hills. I belong to that party which is pros- 
perous when the furnaces are aflame : and when you dig coal and iron, and silver ; Avhen 
everybody has enough to eat ; when everybody is happy ; when the children are all going 
to school, and when joy covers my Nation as with a garment. That party which is 
prosperous, then, is my party."— Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, 



"Oh ! I love the old Republic, bound by the seas, walled by the wide air, domed by 
heaven's blue, and lit with the eternal stars. I love the Republic ; I love it because I 
love liberty. Liberty is my religion, and at its altar I worship and will worship." — 
Col. Robert G. Ingersoll. 



" I have a right to express my opinion, and the right in common with every other 
human being, and I am willing to give to every other human being the right that I claim 
for myself. Republicanism says, that out upon the great intellectual sea there is room 
for every sail ; Republicanism says, that in the intellectual air there is room enough for 
every wing. Republicanism means justice in politics. Republicanism means progress 
in civilization. Republicanism means that every man shall be an educated 2?atriot and a 
gentleman. And I want to say to you to-day, that the Republican party is the best that 
ever existed. I want to say to you to-day, that it is an honor to belong tc it. It is an 
honor to have belonged to it for twenty years ; it is an honor to belong to the party that 
elected Abraham Lincoln President. And let me say to you, that Lincoln was the 
greatest, the best, the purest, the kindest man that has ever sat in the Presidential chair. 
It is an honor to belong to the Republican party that gave 4.000,000 of men the rights 
of freemen ; it is an honor to belong to the party thaL broke the shackles from 4,000,000 
of men, women and children. It is an honor to belong to the party that declared that 
bloodhounds wore not the missionaries of civilization. It is an honor to belong to the 
party that said it was a crime to steal a babe from its mother's breast. It is an honor to 
belong to the pai-ty that swore that this is a Nation forever, one and indivisible. It is an 
honor to belong to the party that elected U. S. Grant President of the United States. It 



72 PATRIOTIC SENTIMENTS. 

is an honor to belong to tlie party that issued thousands and thousands of millions of 
dollars in promises — that issued promises until they became as thick as the withered 
leaves of winter ; an honor to belong to the party that issued them to put doAvn a rebel- 
lion ; an honor to belong to the party that put it down ; an honor to belong to the party 
that had the moral courage and honesty to make every one of the promises, made in 
war, in peace as good as shining, glittering gold. And I tell you that if there is another 
life, and if there is a day of judgment, all you need to say upon that solenm occasion is, 
'I was in life and in my death a good, square Republican.'"— Col. RoijeutG. Ixgeksoll. 



" We are not working in a corner nor in a hole. If there ever was a Nation whose 
prosperity had attracted the thoughtful regard of wise men throughout the world, this is 
that Nation. If there has ever been surprise sprung upon men at the -developments of 
human nature, the conduct of this Nation in the war and after the war, and to this hour, 
has given that surprise. Not only are we surrounded with a cloud of earthly witnesses 
in this great campaign, but all the men that landed with our fathers, in the misty dis- 
tance, obscure to us but clear to them, are looking down upon us. It is the Nation they 
founded, and if the rock could speak as once the rock gushed forth with water for the 
famished crowd, old Plymouth Rock would give forth a voice to all men of the Republican 
party and of the Nation, saying, 'Keep, build, fortify that which we founded.'"— Rev. 
HeNKY W.U{D Beecher. 



" Scarcely, like a reed blown from the wind in the sky, have they gone out of sight 
before we behold the reverent founders of the Constitution and the fathers of this Nation. 
They, too, are the witnesses of their children, and they plead that this Constitution, 
which was ordained to Liberty, shall neither be undermined nor blackened, nor weakened, 
nor perverted into an instrument of tyranny by their posterity. Heed their voice. And 
scarcely have they gone out of sight, when, gathering lilvo armies, multitudinous as the 
drops of the storm-cloud, the men that laid down their lives for the Nation appear 
and lift up their voices and reach out airy hands, to beseech us to perserve immaculate 
that for which they bled to gain. And high above them all, and most reverent I behold 
the immortal form of the Father of his Country, a Southerner and loving the South. 
Methinks he turns his face from the North, and says to his brethren of the South : ' Ye 
know not what ye do. Be at peace. Maintam the Government. Submit to the law ; 
and let there be brotherhood in all the land, and your God and my God shall pour his 
blessing upon the Nation.'"— Rev. He^-ry Ward Beecher. 



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